Written by April Pulley Sayre
Pictures by Barbara Bash
Greenwillow Books

The desert is full of sounds. Skitter, skitter, scratch . . . a scorpion is crawling. Pop. pop. pop. . . a kangaroo rat is hopping. Tsk, tsk, tsk. . . a rattlesnake is shaking its tail. But the spadefoot toad is quiet in her underground burrow, listening for one sound in particular. . .

Follow the amazing life cycle of the spadefoot toad who waits, buried deep down, for the sound of rain. Then, in a flurry of energetic activity, the toad emerges, finds a mate, and lays eggs. In only two weeks, before the puddles dry up, all the tadpoles must hatch and transform into toads. Soon they all dig down again to wait and wait - sometimes as long as a year - for that wonderful sound of rain.

"Expressive and detailed illustrations capture the desert's denizens in motion, complementing the aurality of the text and contrasting with the ever-patient toad, which they invest with a remarkable amount of personality. This is top-notch nonfiction for the very young."
Kirkus Review

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