TUMBLE: A Delightful Desert Excursion

Here's a Sunday delight for anyone who loves the desert, or even for those  (like me), who had no connection to desert life until I read the picture books of Byrd Baylor, poet of the desert. Her love of and connection with desert life, including the geologic life, offered me vicarious visits and instilled my deeply felt interest in this unique habitat and its residents. 

ORCHARD BOOKS, 2023

Perhaps that's why this recently released informational picture book appealed to me so much. TUMBLE is written and illustrated by Adriana Hernandez Bergstrom. There is minimal rhymed text, usually two-word sentences on each double spread (36 words in all!). This easy-to-read and equally easy to chime-in-on language will entice even youngest audiences but also enchant older readers. There will be recognition and smiles from those who know and appreciate this environment and it will surely gain new fans and curious visitors to such places, even among distant city dwelling kids.

Tumbleweeds are ubiquitous in deserts and also in media depicting those regions, as well as being symbolic in literary references. Here, instead of being an unimportant backdrop item, a single tumbleweed takes center stage. It is not anthropomorphized or characterized, simply named TUMBLE, and portrayed in its natural life cycle. Even so, I was rooting for it, noting its hurdles and celebrating its successes.

In this case, the main text and charmingly authentic spreads show the life cycle of a tumbleweed and provide a visual nod to surrounding creatures and foliage. TUMBLE's capacity to survive (as a species) is reinforced by the story itself, demonstrating its adaptations to harshest conditions, durability to make reproduction possible, and capacity to spread that life cycle miles beyond its place of original growth. Simple back matter reveals a diagram of tumbleweed life cycle, a scale image of  actual seed size, and inset images of each creature included in main spreads to name it and provide a "Can you find it?" challenge. The appeal of this informative, entertaining, almost song-life text and its desert-palette images is undeniable and worthy of attention from anyone, any age. 

Take a literary trip to meet TUMBLE on its own turf!

Check out a prior post about books that celebrate simple things in seemingly austere settings, including one of my favorite Baylor titles. HERE. You can find other works by Bergstrom HERE.