Cactus Home

K-Gr 2–A top-notch title in the “I Like to Read” series, Geisel Honor winner Madan’s latest beginning reader offers kids a glimpse into the natural community of a cactus while inspiring them to give ­everyone a chance. A cactus is a fun place to live for a variety of birds and mammals, but then a family of spiders moves in. The residents are unsure of their new neighbors until a huge storm causes damage to their beloved cactus. Then it’s spiders to the rescue, fixing the cactus and paving the way for acceptance of other new creatures. Text is brief and simple with repetitive words throughout, perfect for building confidence in young readers who are working on reading sentences. It is the illustrations that carry the story, with a variety of animal characters doing fun, often humorous, ­humanlike activities in their cactus home. The art was created digitally but still has a hand-drawn quality that adds interest. T­extured brushes create an impressionist effect that is simple yet realistic and fits well with thin line art.