Reviews for Around One Cactus: Owls, Bats and Leaping Rats

The average rating for Around One Cactus: Owls, Bats and Leaping Rats based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-11-28 00:00:00 Robin Rae The saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) is one of the outlining plants of the Sonoran Desert. These plants are outsized, tree-like columnar cacti that grow branches (or arms) as they age, although some never grow arms. During sunshine hours, a child sees a saguaro cactus standing unaccompanied and assumes that there is nothing else to perceive in the dehydrated desert. Fredericks and DiRubbio show a night-time alteration, a scene that comes animated with assorted eerie, crawly, enthralling creatures. The genuineness of a multifarious ecosystem is made vibrant through rhyming verse and pulsating illustrations. The animal life in and around the cactus includes a scorpion, rattlesnake, owl, and Gila monster, which the author observes are there to "play or prey." The picture book's field-notes section provides abundance of information on the animals, including the fact that all of them can be found in the Sonoran Desert.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-09-23 00:00:00 Karen Admon This caught my attention because of the illustrations. There is an especially gorgeous one of saguaro cactus, a boy, and several desert creatures silhouetted against a sunset. But once I started reading, I wasn't very thrilled with the text. I don't always like rhyming text, and while this is pretty well done, I also didn't like the use of repeating lines that add on with each new animal introduced. The combination of rhyming and repeating text makes it feel like this was written for very young children. Yet the vocabulary used is clearly for older children. (In fact, the AR reading level is 6.1 - which is sixth grade.) The field notes at the end are a bit overwhelming with their detail after the sparse detail given in the actual text of the book. I did like the inclusion of a "fantastic fact" about each of the desert animals mentioned. Even though the illustrations are eye-catching and very nice, I think there are better books about there for teaching the desert habitat. (Two stars for the text, four for the illustrations.)