The Dreaded Cliff

From retired National Park Service ranger of thirty years, Terry Nichols, The Dreaded Cliff is about an extraordinary journey from an ordinary packrat named Flora. Flora is always warned by other packrats to beware of the dreaded cliff, but she doesn’t understand why. One day, Flora meets another packrat named Grandma Mimi who tells her about a time when the cliff was home to all packrats, until a beast drove them away. When a couple of humans hit the road in their van—Flora’s home—Flora suddenly finds herself in new territory. She encounters quicksand and the King of all Kangaroo Rats, but will Flora ever return home? Nichols gives readers a charming packrat character, while also providing an accurate picture of packrat behavior in their natural setting of the high desert. The end of the book includes more detailed descriptions of the other animals encountered in the story, including a packrat’s natural predators, the Great Horned Owl and Great Basin Gopher Snake. Odessa Sawyer’s black and white illustrations provide further detail of Flora and her environment. An ideal book for those younger middle grade readers transitioning from early reader to more advanced middle grade books.