First Grade, Science, Set Seven

Here are the resources I recommend for learning about Deserts:

• Deserts by Darlene R. Stille -- this book is written for young children, with lots of photos and easy-to-understand text
• Deserts by Norman S. Barrett --  so far we have only used this book for the illustrations on pages 8 and 9. It has a nice map showing the deserts of the world, a diagram explaining what causes an oasis, what a rain shadow is, and the difference between a plateau, mesa, and butte.
• A Walk in the Desert by Rebecca L. Johnson -- this book only deals with the deserts of North America, but in small chunks it is enjoyable for young children.
• Discover Deserts by Jennifer Vogelgesang -- there is large print to skim over the subject, and small print for more detail
• America's Deserts: Guide to Plants and Animals by Marianne D. Wallace -- we used this book to find our ten plants and, since I didn't have a book on food chains, we used it for that. Making up a possible food chain from each page.

About Specific Animals:

• Amazing Snakes! by Sarah L. Thomson -- this is An I Can Read Book level 2
• Armadillo Trail by Stephen R. Swinburne -- a picture book that teaches, too
• Desert Birds by Alice Flanagan -- there is not a lot of specific information about birds, just a lot of general information, but you can find some that interest you and look them up on-line.
• Meet the Meerkat by Darrin Lunde -- another picture book that teaches
• Ostrich by Wallace Litwin -- the pictures are black and white, but it is written for children and teaches about the ostrich without getting bogged down in details
• Desert Mammals by Elaine Landau -- tells about camels, kangaroo rats, pallid bats, antelope jack rabbits, and addaxes

Literature or Picture Books:

• Deserts by Cathryn Sill -- illustrations of deserts from around the world. One or two lines of text accompany each illustration.
• This is the Oasis by Miriam Moss -- good illustrations with about one sentence per page
• Desert Voices by Byrd Baylor -- a book of poems about desert animals
• Hassan: Boy of the Desert by Dominique Darbois -- tells about a family's stop at an oasis
• Desert Trip by Barbara Steiner -- story of a mom and child hiking in the desert