Build your child's reading confidence at home with books at the right level The sandy Arabian Desert stretches for hundreds of kilometres in every direction. It may seem hard to believe that anything can live in this hot, dry land, but many different living things call it home. Find out about the amazing plants, animals, and people who live in this beautiful landscape. Sapphire/Band 16 books offer longer reads to develop children's sustained engagement with texts and are more complex syntactically. Text type - An information book. The book is organised into short chapters to help children practise the skills of locating and identifying important information. Ideas for reading at the back of the book provide practical support and stimulating activities. Curriculum links: geography, science.