Poetry Picture Book - This Big Sky by Pat Mora

Illustrated by  Steve Jenkins

1998, Scholaswtic Press

currently OOP, but used available cheaply

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  

My rating:  4

Endpapers:  Terracotta

Illustrations:    Cut-Paper Collage 

My comments:  14 poems about the southwestern desert!

This Big Sky

This sky is big enough

for all my dreams.

Two ravens burst black

from a pinon tree

into the blare

of blazing sun.

I follow their wide ebony flight

over copper hills,

down canyons shimmering gold

autumn leave.

Two ravens spread their wings, rise

into whispers

of giant pines, over mountains blue

with memories.

This sky is big enough

for all my dreams.

Goodreads Summary:  An evocative collection of fourteen poems that combines Pat Mora's simple, yet stunning words with Steve Jenkins' bright collage images to capture the beauty and mystery of the American Southwest.
          In fourteen lyrical, beautifully spare poems, renowned Latina poet Pat Mora brings the landscape, animals, and people of the Southwest into sharp focus. Steve Jenkins richly textured cut-paper illustrations work with the text to evoke the power of this vast place where every heart has a home, and every dream has a piece of sky.

Bedtime in the Southwest - Mona Hodgson

Illustrated by Renee Graef
Rising Moon, 2004
$14.95
32 pgs.
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Desert at night with saguaros

What does a southwest critter do when Papa says it's time for bed?

In this adorable book we see some different bedtime avoidance techniques - from many different Sonoran desert animals - hares and roadrunners and geckos and coyote, to name just a few. Hiding and begging for a drink, hopping on the bed - very cute and funny.

My almost-two-year-old granddaughter's been rearranging furniture, emptying bureaus, making nests after "lights out." This will make a perfect bedtime story from her Nan who lives in the desert!

Bubba the Cowboy Prince - Helen Ketteman

A Fractured Texas Tale
Illustrated by James Warhola
Scholastic, 1997
Rating: 4

Bubba lives with his wicked StepDaddy and his hateful stepbrothers Dwayne and Milton. One day Miz Lurleen, who was purty and rich and owned the biggest spread around, decided to throw a ball to find herself a feller that was "cute as a cow's ear."

You know the story. This one is cute and the illustrations are really cute. And who was his "fairy godmother?" Well, let's see: "Now, Bubba figured he'd bonked the bejeebers out of his bean, 'cause the voice was coming from a cow. She chewed her cud for a moment, then said, "I'm your fairy god cow, and I can help you go to the ball."

Yee ha!

The illustrations are full page, edge-to-edge and give a whimsical old west feel.

Note: The illustrations include a lot of saguaros. I've become quite sensitive to this, living in the Sonoran Desert which is the only place in the world where saguaros grow naturally. They are NOT native to Texas, and won't be found in the wild there.....

Little Red Cowboy Hat - Susan Lowell

Illustrator: Randy Cecil
For: Kids
Pub: 1997
Rating: 4/5
Finished: Aug. 11, 2008

I love fractured fairy tales, and while wandering around the the Texas State History Museum gift shop I found this book. It was actually the author's name that drew me, because I'm not crazy about the cover illustration. However, the opening two-page spread of bright yellow, orange chartreuse, lime, and gold desert appealed to me greatly.

Local author Susan Lowell has created a fractured fairy tale about Little Red Riding Hood that is set in the Sonoran desert and has the feistiest grandmother I've ever met on the pages of a picture book. "That yellow-bellied, snake-blooded, skunk-eyed, rancid son of a parallelogram!" she exclaims after they have successfully driven him out. (We actually never know whether Little Red and Granny kill him or not, but that would make a great conversation!) Great language throughout.

As far as illustrations, I liked the outdoor, desert pages far more than the pages set indoors. And the cover still doesn't work for me, but now I'm going to explore other works of Randy Cecil to see how I feel about his work as a whole.