Children's Picture Book Database at Miami University

Cornelius Vanderbilt sets out on a mission to find the best potato dish ever. He travels around and finds none that are good enough. Vanderbilt goes to Cary Moon's Restaurant, where George Crum is the head chef. Crum makes many dishes that Vanderbilt does not like. Crum decides to make the potatoes so crispy and salty, so he will not like them. Vanderbilt loves them and that is how the potato chip is invented.

Variations on traditional children's songs and poems will have children chiming in about cactuses, camels, and more as they learn about the desert habitat and its flora and fauna. A tarkawara (kangaroo rat) hops on the desert sand instead of a kookaburra sitting in an old gum tree. And teapots aren't the only things that are short and stout-just look at the javelina's hooves and snout. Travel the world's deserts to dig with meerkats, fly with bats, and hiss with Gila monsters! Whether sung or read aloud, "Deep in the Desert" makes learning about deserts anything but dry.