Fish in the Desert: The Untold Story of the Death Valley Pupfish

From multi-award-winning authors comes a fascinating picture book highlighting the resilience of a 20,000-year-old species of endangered fish in Death Valley.

When some think of Death Valley, a barren wasteland comes to mind. Far from it, the area, now a protected national park known for its extreme temperatures, is teeming with a diverse range of endemic species, plants, and terrain. Fish in the Desert explores the fascinating and tiny 'pupfish,' the world's rarest fish who have withstood the harsh conditions of Death Valley since the Pleistocene epoch.

The story follows Adele, a young girl, on a road trip with her family to Death Valley National Park in Southeastern California near the border with Nevada. Adele spots a beautiful and tiny blue and purple fish that the park's Aquatic Ecologist tells the family is called a pupfish, an endangered fish species renowned for its ability to exist with the intense heat and salt and even adapt to a changing ecosystem over thousands of years.

Young readers will learn that the tenacious pupfish, originally among many types of sea life, is the only species to have survived the climate change and extreme conditions of Death Valley and that there are even subspecies of pupfish that evolved separately in different pools of water.

*Back-of-book glossary
*Science Concepts: animal adaptations, desert habitat, food/web chains, aquifer, endangered and endemic species
*A "Did You See Me?" page challenges kids to go back through the book to find the animals and plants that make the desert their home

Educators and families of young children will delight in this book, which uses engaging storytelling to highlight the importance of nature, environmental stewardship, and wildlife conservation in preventing the loss of an incredible endangered species and the unique and interesting ecosystem in which it lives. Fish in the Desert is the first installment in the Bringing National Parks to Life series, which focuses on endangered species in a different protected location within the U.S. National Park Service and Wildlife Refuge.