Desert Baths

Habitats

by Darcy Pattison, Kathleen Rietz (Illustrator)

Watch the vulture bask in the morning sun, the roadrunner kick up a cloud of dust, the javelina wallow, and the bobcat give her cub a licking with a rough tongue in Desert Baths. As the sun travels across the sky, learn how twelve different desert animals face the difficulties of staying clean in a dry and parched land. Explore the desert habitat through its animals and their habits of hygiene. Told in lyrical prose, this story is a celebration of the desert lands of the American Southwest.

6 pg For Creative Minds educational section in the back
30-40 pg cross-curricular Teaching Activities and 3 Interactive Quizzes available free on the book's homepage
eBooks with Auto-Flip, Auto-Read and selectable English and Spanish text and audio
Aligned to State Standards / Lexile, Guided Reading, AR, Reading Counts, and Fountas & Pinnel.
For the Spanish version, see Las Duchas en el desierto (hardcover or Kindle).

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction, Animals, Childrens, Science

32 pages, Hardcover

First published June 27, 2012

About the author

DARCY PATTISON (www.darcypattison.com) is published in ten languages.

Children’s book author Darcy Pattison writes award-winning fiction and non-fiction books for children. Her works have received starred PW, Kirkus, and BCCB reviews. Awards include the Irma Black Honor award, five NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Books, Eureka! Nonfiction Honor book, Junior Library Guild selections, and NCTE Notable Children’s Book in Language Arts. She’s the 2007 recipient of the Arkansas Governor’s Arts Award for Individual Artist for her work in children’s literature.

Reviews

[Wayne Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone knows that it seldom rains in the desert and is very dry there, so how do animals in the desert take baths to get rid of dirt, germs, bugs, and parasites? Author Darcy Pattison covers a day in the life of the American southwest desert to explain how a turkey vulture, an Anna’s hummingbird, a desert tortoise, a roadrunner, a mule deer, a diamondback rattler, a scaled quail, a western banded gecko, a javalina, a pallid bat, a coyote, and a bobcat, all get baths, along with other interesting bits of information about each of these creatures. Can you guess which of them takes a sunbath, a dew bath, a dust bath, a tongue bath, a grass bath, a spit bath, a mud bath, and even an ant bath?

As the sun rises, travels across the sky, and sets, young readers can learn how these twelve different desert animals deal with the problem of trying to stay clean in a parched land. The full-color, realistic pictures by illustrator Kathleen Rietz will help them to explore the desert habitat through its animals and their habits of hygiene. The book can be read either at home or in the classroom. Also the six pages of “For Creative Minds” activities in the back of the book, including exercises on deserts in North America and telling time, and the additional free activities found online at the publisher’s website can be used by parents or teachers to combine fun with learning. By the way, do you know what a javalina is? If not, you can find out by reading Desert Baths.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each of the animals in this early reader picture book depends on its desert habitat in order to survive. While a roadrunner uses dust to clean itself, a scaled quail uses an ant to groom itself, and others such as the desert tortoise look forward to rainfall for a bath. Although the baths may not all be cleansing or grooming rituals with which young readers will be familiar such as snake skin shedding, all of the vignettes allow readers to learn more about the fascinating world around them where animals pass their time in some of the ways that humans do. The book contains activity sheets that involve using the sun to tell the time. This is another winning title for the younger set.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the many books I used to teach my graddaughters about the Deserts of the US. Very informational.

[Andréa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun fact book about how animals in the desert take baths. Nice illustrations. Recommend for ages 3-6.

[Laura McLoughlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was featured as a "you might also enjoy this" book after a recent bath-time themed story time. My daughter stood next to it the whole time (I won't let her pick it up until story time is over) so that none of the other kids would get it. Not sure it was worth quite that amount of effort, but it is a perfectly fine non-fiction, picture book about how animals in the North American desert keep clean. I was a bit bummed that it was only US and Mexican desserts and not any African desert animals only because her favorite current stuffed animal is a fenic fox and they live in the Sahara.

I liked the structure of the book, starting with animals up a sunrise moving forward to the nocturnal animals.

[Chelsea Raymer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that this book was kind of cool because it shows you how not all animals bathe using water. It also talks about how some of the animals use the little water they can find to bathe, so it is nothing like a person taking a shower. Little kids may not realize how animals bathe, so I think this is a good book to describe how animals are all different.

[Desiree Kulewsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that this book was ok. I liked how factual it was and how it showed how each different animal bathed and at what time of day/night they did it. I just wasnt a fan of the pictures and it didnt intrest me as much as i thought it would.

[Mouse Denehy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the book as I had no idea about some of the bathing rituals for the animals. The snakeskin pattern borders were one of my favorite features to the design of the book. The language was easy to understand and the glossary in the back was very useful for quick resource reference.

[Annie Pasma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun fact book about how animals in the desert take baths. Nice illustrations. Recommend for ages 3-6.

[Merry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing title. Interesting information.