Dig, Wait, Listen: A Desert Toad's Tale

April Pulley Sayre is the author of numerous books for children, including If You Should Hear a Honey Guide, which was named "the outstanding natural history book of 1995" by Smithsonian Magazine. April Pulley Sayre lives with her husband in South Bend, Indiana.

*Starred Review* Ages 4-7. Several inches below the surface of the desert sand, a spadefoot toad waits and listens for rain. She hears the sounds of animals overhead: a scorpion, a kangaroo rat, a herd of peccaries, a woodpecker, and a rattlesnake. Finally, rains falls. She digs her way to the surface, where she mates. From the eggs she laid in a puddle of rainwater, tadpoles hatch and grow into toads. These tiny toads dig under the sand and wait, perhaps for months, for rain. Sayre, the author of If You Should Hear the Honey Guide (1995) and Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! (2000), once again writes about the natural world in a way that is clear, precise, and poetic. The text, which is akin to that of any good fiction picture book in its brevity, attention to sensory details, and read-aloud potential, also conveys the life cycle of a single species in a cogent and memorable way. The book ends with two appended pages that include a discussion of the spadefoot toad and a little information about each of the other animals that appeared in the book. Created with pencil, pen and ink, and watercolor, Bash's pictures illustrate the desert scenes with pleasingly varied colors, perspectives, and layouts. Preschool and primary-grade children will find this well-crafted book a wholly satisfying introduction to the spadefoot toad in particular and desert animals and the idea of life cycles in general. Carolyn Phelan
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