Richard Albert began his career as a writer of pulp Westerns, but the demands of his family and his engineering career resulted in a thirty-year hiatus from writing. This is his first book for children.
Sylvia Long is the illustrator of several books for children including the best sellers Ten Little Rabbits and Alejandro's Gift. Ms. Long's detailed paintings are inspired by her love of animals and the outdoors. She lives in Arizona. Read more about Sylvi
--KIRKUS REVIEWS, February 15, 1994
In his first children's book, an 84-year-old depicts a homely
desert sage: whitebearded Alejandro, who welcomes visitors who stop
for water from his well. Human callers are few at this remote spot
among the Southwest's cactus, but a variety of little animals enjoy
the water irrigating his small garden. Hoping to attract larger
species, the old man creates a water hole. As he soon realizes,
it's too close to his house and to the road; but once he's made
another, in a sheltered spot, he can hear all the desert animals
enjoying it. Long fills generous full-bleed spreads with evocative,
meticulously detailed pen-and-watercolor illustrations of a desert
landscape well populated with the wildlife listed in the text. If
matching these is a challenge, 26 species are sorted out in an
appendix. A likable, beautifully presented picture of a human being
responding to his natural surroundings with sensitivity and
imagination. (Picture book, 4-8)
--SMITHSONIAN
Deep in the Southwestern desert, a kindly and observant homesteader
decides he will create a waterhole for gray fox and peccary, gopher
and tortoise. Then the magic begins. A book entllralling beyond
words.
This tender story by an elderly writer about an old man who lives
alone in the desert has an autobiographical ring. After Alejandro
plants a lush vegetable garden to help pass the time, he is
thrilled by the many small animals that come to drink in its
furrows. But when he realizes that there are many larger creatures
going thirsty, he generously builds a sheltered waterhole away from
his adobe home. The handsome watercolors by Long ( April 15, 1994
In his first children's book, octogenarian Albert uses the
appealing story of a lonely man as the framework for an edifying
lesson on desert wildlife. Living in a remote adobe house, with
only his burro for a companion, Alejandro is delighted when a
squirrel appears in his garden one day and eventually returns with
more visitors--jackrabbits, roadrunners, cactus wrens--all
realistically portrayed by Long ( February 1994
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
