DESERT RATS by Martin Murie

Kids learn how they ought to “be” from watching the kids around them, but if they live in a big city or are fairly isolated, esp. from kids that are not like themselves, what can they do? Even TV kids seem to be come from a can -- at least in sit coms. But there are always books. So I learned a great deal about how to “be” from Anne of Green Gables, though I also dipped into Penrod and Sam and found Two Little Savages to be very helpful. For a while I tried to emulate Dick and Jane, but they were far too boring. My aunt as a child was so intense about Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm that she earned the nickname “Becky.”

“Desert Rats” by Martin Murie is not quite on so grand a scale -- more like the small stories of Beatrix Potter -- though the characters in Murie’s book are not animals. (I could argue that neither are Potter’s characters though they LOOK like animals.) “Desert Rats” is a small book -- easy to hold -- with a vivid torn paper cover that simulates desert landscape (NOT flat, but buttes, ridges and arroyos). The insides are likewise modest but vivid. Simply, a little cluster of kids begin to explore the desert near their homes. They see intriguing things, a few dangerous things (and since they use common sense, no one is hurt), and a remarkable character named Sunny. Thickly throughout the books are charming pencil drawings by Martin.

This is a kind of chapbook, simple enough for a child to emulate while developing their own sense of recorded exploration, but also rather sophisticated. Besides using big words -- big enough that it might be a good idea for an adult to read the book out loud several times before a younger child tackles it alone -- the story doesn’t stoop to patronizing the reader. Plenty of what seems simple has enough subtext to keep an adult reflecting for a while.

What I especially like about self-publishing is the freedom to do things one’s own way. This book could have been rejected by publishers for a dozen different reasons. There seems to be little interest in editing as seeking to understand the author’s goal and supporting or even developing it further. Instead the whole goal is to produce something that conforms to what sold “last time.”

What came to mind when I reflected on this book was one of my favorite childhood picture books, maybe one that Martin also remembers. It was very simple: pencil drawings about a batch of coyote pups that were found by Indians of the SW sort. I “read” it for long periods of time, going back to the library to check it out yet again. It created a mood, a sympathy, an understanding, that stuck with me -- is still with me in my attitudes and willingness to reach out to animals. I don’t remember any lecturing or angst about it -- just a kind of harmony. I wish I could find it again.

Normally I write a blog of at least 1,000 words, but I think I’ll let this stand at about half that -- a small review for a small book.