We Walk in Sandy Places

by Byrd Baylor, Marilyn Schweitzer

When animals cross the desert their tracks leave behind a story in the sand.

Genres: Picture Books

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Byrd Baylor has always lived in the Southwest, mainly in Southern Arizona near the Mexican border. She is at home with the southwestern desert cliffs and mesas, rocks and open skies. She is comforted by desert storms. The Tohono O’odham people, previously known as the Papagos, are her neighbors and close friends. She has focused many of her writings on the region’s landscape, peoples, and values. Through her books of rhythmic prose poetry, written primarily for children, she celebrates the beauty of nature and her own feelings of rapport with it.
Byrd has written many books for children.

Her books have been honored with many prestigious children’s book awards, including the Caldecott Award and the Texas Bluebonnet Award. All of her books are full of the places and the peoples that she knows. She thinks of these books as her own kind of private love songs to the place she calls home.

Reviews

[T Crockett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Byrd Baylor's writing, so I may set the bar a little too high. I enjoyed this, but felt like the writing wasn't as creative as I've come to expect. So then I reread it thinking of it more as an intro to what tracks tell us. It worked better in that light.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice blending of lyrical writing and photography. I enjoy reading the "stories" that footprints and tracks make.