PK-5
Americas Award 1993-2021

00013828

A beautifully and colorfully illustrated children's book in large soft cover. An older man lives alone in the desert with his donkey. He has a house, donkey shelter, and water. He's lonely and decides to plant a vegetable garden, which he irrigates. Soon animals are visiting his garden for a drink. He builds a water hole for the animals but finds they aren't coming to his new creation. Then he realizes it's too close to the house and the larger animals are afraid, so he digs a new water hole further from the house, surrounded by desert growth. Soon all the animals find this new watering hole and come. Alejandro no longer feels so alone, and the small critters still come to his garden. There are two pages of illustrations of desert animals and plants, including their habits. It's educational and the illustrations are superb. ( )

This book felt about as dry as the desert in which it takes place. The illustrations are lovely and lush, but in my opinion the plot is lacking. However this book is a good example of the impact humans have on an ecosystem, both good and bad. I did like the glossary of animals in the back though. ( )

I found this book to be quite boring. The book is about a desert and giving water to animals in the dry climate. The language was easy to understand, but there wasn't much to the plot of the story. There were really no well-developed characters because the only person in the book was Alejandro. The only useful and interesting part of this book was the back that contained information about desert habitats. Overall, the book, much like a desert, was very dry and boring.