There’s a Dragon in the Tree House and He Won’t Come Down!

If someone takes over your own special tree house and is ruining your own special picnic, you’ve got a problem.

If that someone is a dragon, you’ve got a very big problem. Two friends think creatively, make a trip to the library, and find a way to reach across the divide between child and dragon. Nancy Patz’s story rings with realism, even as her signature watercolors sing with jewel tones.

Nancy Patz has written and illustrated fourteen popular, prize-winning books – from the rhythmic fun of Pumpernickel Tickle and Mean Green Cheese and Moses Supposes His Toeses Are Roses to the poignancy of Holocaust-based Who Was the Woman Who Wore the Hat?, which won the Sydney Taylor Award of the Association of Jewish Libraries among other prizes. She has lectured widely in schools and to teachers’ groups on the art of the picture book, and her paintings and drawings have hung in numerous museum and gallery exhibitions. Patz attended Baltimore public schools and Goucher College, and graduated from Stanford University. She lives in Baltimore, where she worked with her grandsons on There’s a Dragon in the Tree House and He Won’t Come Down!

What’s in the hole? Critters of the Sonoran Desert

In spring, the Sonoran Desert of Arizona is full of activity. Look beneath the cacti, and you will find holes in the ground. So, what’s in the hole? Join the animals, birds, insects, and reptiles to figure out the puzzle. Be curious!

Learn the names of 29 critters in the languages of O’odham, science, Spanish, and English, including: Gila Monster, Diamondback Rattlesnake, Dove, Burrowing Owl, Antelope Squirrel, Desert Spiny Lizard, Sonoran Desert Toad, Peccary or Javelina, Bee, Bobcat, Horned Lizard, Tarantula, Quail, Round-Tailed Ground Squirrel, Various Birds, Mule Deer, Coyote, Jackrabbit, and Desert Cottontail.

Don Burgess took these wildlife portraits just north of Tucson, Arizona; and his daughter, Lisa Maria Burgess, wrote the book. Don Burgess (1939-2022) photographed most of the wildlife portraits in this book behind his house north of Tucson, Arizona; he photographed the burrowing owls near Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua. Also on the north side of Tucson, Bryan Wilson photographed the snake on the move and the tarantula, and Lisa Maria Burgess the bunnies in the hole. With thanks to Kristin Williams for photographing Don!

And many thanks to Ronald Geronimo, Director of the Oʼodham Language Center, for providing names in O’odham, and to the staff at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum for their identification review.