Explore the Wild

Children's Literature - Beverly Kobrin

Chances are children think of dry, dune-filled landscapes at the word "desert." The not-always-sand-covered areas are habitats of spectacular extremes, however, whose varied life forms make them anything but bleak, barren biomes. Begin desert explorations with Beverly K. Duncan's Explore the Wild. The author/artist's artful depiction of seven U.S. habitats, one per chapter, highlights selected plants and animals then places all in situ. Youngsters can compare then note differences and similarities between the southwestern desert and other habitats as a point of departure for further research.

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4The uneven and inconsistent information presented here limits the use of this attractive volume. Lush double-page watercolor spreads painted in soft tones depict animals and plants living in seven different ecosystems. However, the scenes are not drawn to scale, and grasshoppers are as big as prairie chickens. Also, Duncan has admitted to taking "artistic license" to portray animals and plants in unnatural abundance and to show diurnal and nocturnal species together. In some instances, she provides textual details of an animal's size, food source, shelter; but in others, she describes its protection from predators and mating habits. With the abundance of superior nature books available for youngsters to explore, this title will not be missed.Olga Kuharets, New York Public Library

Carolyn Phelan

Duncan introduces the animals and plants of seven North American habitats: alpine tundra, kelp forest, desert, prairie, salt marsh, swamp, and the Arctic. In each section, four pages introduce individual plants and animals through many, small illustrations accompanied by short, descriptive paragraphs. A large painting follows on a double-page spread, showing the environment teeming with life and giving readers an opportunity to identify species as they might appear in the wild. Silhouetted against a white background, the small paintings are clearer than the large spreads, in which Duncan notes that she includes more species than one would find, in order to facilitate the search-and-find concept. An intriguing supplement to more traditional books on biomes.

Kirkus Reviews

This book will make children feel as if they have access to their own nature museum, with seven different US habitats on display: desert, grassland, alpine tundra, arctic, salt marsh, kelp forest, and swamp. For each habitat, Duncan (illustrator of Susan Cooper's Unseen Rainbows, Silent Songs, 1995, etc.) provides two introductory spreads of descriptions and small colored vignettes of typical plants and animals, and then presents a scenic spread of those same plants and animals in context. She is careful to note areas in which she took artistic license: by cramming so many species into one scene, and by portraying nocturnal and diurnal animals together. Readers will delight in locating dozens of creatures hiding and hunting in the landscapes; the realistic drawings are a trove of information to observe and digest.