Saguaro's gifts by Kurt Cyrus, illustrated by Andy Atkins

 Kurt Cyrus has been creating unique, humorous, and interesting picture books for years, but my favorite Tadpole Rex. I am generally not a fan of rhyming picture books, but it is infectiously fun to read, so I’m inevitably going to compare anything else he does in the rhyming way to that previous book.

This makes it harder to appreciate this quieter book, as it doesn’t have the same lilting ring to the text which I’m subconsciously expecting. The story is an appreciation of the saguaro cactus (which I discovered I’ve been pronouncing incorrectly for years, but no surprises there) and a celebration of 100 years of the shelter, food, and growth in the desert. One by one, desert animals visit the cactus, interact with it, and wish it a happy birthday. Some of the connections are tenuous, like a lizard who stops by, “A lizard eats an orange ant./’Happy birthday, big green plant.’” while others like a bat, birds and butterflies stop to sip nectar, a tortoise passes to pick up fruit from the ground, and a bobcat climbs the prickly plant to escape to safety from a herd of javelinas.

Atkins’ naturalistic paintings are often shown shadowed by clouds or the night, as much of the action happens in the dark. HIs desert is rather smooth and slick, but his animals and other creatures show great detail and can be easily identified. This will be useful, as there’s only a brief note about saguaro cacti at the end without further identification of the many desert-dwellers introduced.

Verdict: If you are looking for realistically illustrated picture books about desert habitats and specifically the saguaro cactus and the life it supports, this is an acceptable starting point, with the main draw being the illustrations. However, the uneven verse and sometimes confusing juxtaposition of text and illustration make it less useful as a read-aloud and the lack of source notes and information mean that readers will need other books to fill in the gaps.

ISBN: 9781534111301; Published August 2021 by Sleeping Bear Press; Review copy provided by publisher