Author: Dawn Van Zant

ISBN:  0-9761768-2-3

The following review was contributed by: Kathryn Atwood: Click Here To View More Of Kathryn's   Reviews

Bradford, the title character in Dawn Van Zant's "Bradford and the Journey to
the Desert of Lop," is a boy who watches "Zorro," who owns a shirt declaring the
word "warrior" and who wears a necklace that holds "cancer beads," one for every
significant battle in his deadly struggle with the disease..

One night, the "Sandman" comes and takes him on a journey into the desert of Lop
to meet a group of endangered Bactrian camels.  Bradford, always ready for a
challenge, joins them and begins his adventure.  He's just not sure what that
adventure is.

The reader is generally in the dark as well but for the most part that doesn't
seem to matter.  The publisher, Wild Heart Ranch, seeks to combine the dual
themes of child empowerment with a knowledge of endangered animals, so the
denoument of "Bradford" isn't as important as the journey itself (via an
endangered camel species) and the self-esteem acquired during that journey by
the brave but very sick Bradford.  And when you read dreamy descriptions like
this one: "A blanket of stars filled a sky that was endless, like the desert in
front of him.  The moon silhouetted the image of a small boy riding a camel
through the desert night" it doesn't seem to matter that Bradford's destiny or
destination isn't completely clear.

The book exhibits an occasional grammatical awkwardness such as this misplaced
comma: "Maybe these camels, knew the secrets of life." "Bradford" also
occasionally contains a repetitiveness linked to "telling" rather than "showing:
"Brad was seeing the desert as a magical place . . . "   Why not just show us
that magic?

Van Zant has created such a dreamy landscape in "Bradford and the Journey to the
Desert of Lop," however, that these minor imperfections will be swept away by
the magical desert sands of Lop as young readers make their way through their
own adventures on the back of an endangered Bactrian camel named Judy.