Cactus Hotel

by Brenda Z. Guiberson

Book Overview

It is another hot day in the desert. Birds and other animals scurry about looking for food. When they get tired they stop to rest at a giant cactus. It is their hotel in the desert!

Many different animals live in the cactus hotel. It protects them; and they protect it, by eating the pests that could harm the cactus.

The cactus grows larger and larger and will live for about two hundred years. When one animal moves out, another moves...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805013334
• ISBN13: 9780805013337
• Release Date: May 1991
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 9.3" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 5 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Kindergarten to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

Excellent for young and old alike

Excellent book for young and old alike. As an adult new to the desert, it gave me a good, quick understanding of the 'circle of life' of the Saguaro and the critters involved with it. It is nicely laid out, simple to read, and even speaks of spiders and other sometimes scary beings in a non-threatening manner. Really quite a good book. I even sent a copy to my good friend's 6 and 9 year olds and they, along with their folks, really enjoyed it. I highly recommend it.

Cactus Hotel

This is an excellent book for children for learning about the interaction of plants and animals in the Southwestern desert environment. Many multi-disciplinary activities can be developed using this marvelous book!

A great book - an engaging story and great learning too!

I love this book. My kids (ages 2 and 4) love this book. Its hard to believe a story with the main character being a cactus could be so beautiful and engaging. But it is. And, at the same time as enjoying the story it teaches the kids about saguaro cacti and desert life. When I first read it I almost cried when the giant 200 year old cactus falls to the ground in a storm.

CACTUS HOTEL IS A REMARKABLE BOOK

Cactus Hotel is better than a good book. It's a marvelous book. It tells, without sentimentalizing it, the story of the life and death of a saguaro cactus. Though it is the story of one plant in nature and how other animals and insects benefit from its gifts, it is a metaphor for living--for all of us. That does not mean the book is heavy or preachy. Far from it. The text is simple in the best sense of that word and lyrical. The illustrations make you feel as if you were in that desert world, living that life. Through its generous time on earth, the cactus is home to, and provides nourishment for, various desert animals--a Gila woodpecker, an elf owl, many others. It uses its span on earth to be exactly what it was meant to be. All of nature is revealed here in its wise splendor--heat, drought, rain, cold, wind, sun. I have read this book to my daughter countless times, and I will continue to read it to her. I think I love it as much--more--than she. The book is poetry. Pure poetry.

CACTUS HOTEL IS A REMARKABLE BOOK

Cactus Hotel is better than a good book. It's a marvelous book. It tells, without sentimentalizing it, the story of the life and death of a saguaro cactus. Though it is the story of one plant in nature and how other animals and insects benefit from its gifts, it is a metaphor for living--for all of us. That does not mean the book is heavy or preachy. Far from it. The text is simple in the best sense of that word and lyrical. The illustrations make you feel as if you were in that desert world, living that life. Through its generous time on earth, the cactus is home to, and provides nourishment for, various desert animals--a Gila woodpecker, an elf owl, many others. It uses its span on earth to be exactly what it was meant to be. All of nature is revealed here in its wise splendor--heat, drought, rain, cold, wind, sun. I have read this book to my daughter countless times, and I will continue to read it to her. I think I love it as much--more--than she. The book is poetry. Pure poetry.