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“From their desert home under a full moon, a close-knit extended family accompanies the sounds of nighttime creatures with music of their own. As coyotes howl, cicadas buzz, and barn owls hoot, each family member improvises in harmony. …The narrator’s father speaks reverently of the heirloom instruments treasured and played by the family. …While the family plays, sings, and dances, departed ancestors echo their actions from above, appearing silvery against a dark, velvet-blue sky laced with nightbirds, moths, stars, and the flashing lightning of an approaching storm.”

– Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

Desert Song

Written by Laekan Zea Kemp
Illustrated by Beatriz Gutiérrez Hernández
Published by Neal Porter Books

A family joins the music of the Texas desert night in this tale of tradition and memory from Pura Belpré Honor author Laekan Zea Kemp.

It starts with a soft tapping,
Uncle Eduardo drumming his
hands against his dusty jeans.

As the blush of sunset gives way to night in the desert, coyotes, cicadas, and barn owls emerge, each calling out to the moon. Watching from their porch, the family joins the song. One by one, each relative offers their drums, flute, maracas, strings, and voices.

They sing with the insects, birds, snakes and toads; and they sing with their ancestors, an audience glittering in the stars overhead. With each strum of passed-down instruments, memories renew, and those gone are alive and near again.

Desert Song hums and chimes with all the music a front porch and the desert beyond can hold. Pura Belpré Honor author Laekan Zea Kemp’s masterfully stirring text dances through Beatriz Gutierrez Hernandez’s enchanting and dynamic artwork. Readers will be left with the soothing sense that when creativity flourishes, the past is never out of reach, and the bonds that matter never break.

Look for the Spanish version, Canción del Desierto.

Primary ISBN: 9780823453924
Publication Date: June 2024
Available As: Hardcover, eBook
Picture Book, Age 04 or older

Community Represented:

Themes: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Setting: United States (Texas)

Character's Place in the Immigration Journey: Unknown Arrival

Book Creator(s) Connection to the Community Represented: Own Voices/Lived Experience

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