Tale of a City

Perhaps the best-known book set in Yuma never mentions the name of the town.  Yet Roxaboxen has become a favorite with children all over the world, thanks to Alice McLerran’s simple story about a simpler time and Barbara Cooney’s evocative drawings that capture the spare beauty of desert and mountains.  Share this storybook with visiting children – or keep it as your own Yuma memento.

La Diabla is the amazingly true and partly imagined story of a Yuma mutt who became Official Greeter at Old Town Wine Cellar.  The amazingly true part is that 13 months after disappearing during a wine tasting, La Diabla reappeared at the shop, not much worse for the wear.  Members of the Women’s Literary Club helped her to “recall” her adventures on the road, with charming illustrations by Steve and Sheli Hudson.  Proceeds from sale of the book benefit Humane Society of Yuma.

A little firefly set on adventure ends up in Yuma on a vacation trip in Fuddle Learns To Cuddle.  His explorations take him all over town, but why DOES everyone keep saying, “just remember to cuddle”?  Austin Light’s illustrations incorporate familiar local landmarks and signs.  Proceeds from sale of book benefit the nonprofit K.I.D.S. CuddleKit Closet, which reaches out to kids in need of kindness.

Read all about it

• The Longest Flight, Shirley Woodhouse Murdock and James A. Gillaspie
• Yuma Hikes I, II & III, Tom Nunn
• Following Footprints Around Yuma, Dan Rasp (desert off-road trips with GPS)
• Finding Birds at the Salton Sea, Henry Detwiler & Bob Miller
• Finding Birds in Yuma County, Henry Detwiler
• Redondo: A Yuma Legacy, Mary Redondo Loroña
• Raymond Marshall Priest: The Yuma Project (Arizona Historical Society)

Silver screen

Moviemakers have been using Yuma as a stand-in for other locales – or even planets – since the days of Rudolph Valentino.

Among many movies filmed in or around Yuma, here are a few picks - one from each decade since the 1920s - to spice up your viewing queue:

• 1926 - Beau Geste (Ronald Coleman, William Powell)
• 1934 - The Lost Patrol (Victor McLaglen, Boris Karloff)
• 1941 - Road to Zanzibar (Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour)
• 1953 - The Desert Song (Gordon MacRae, Katherine Grayson)
• 1965 - Flight of the Phoenix (James Stewart, Ernest Borgnine)
• 1977 - Stars Wars (Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill)
• 1987 - Spaceballs (John Candy, Mel Brooks, Rick Moranis)
• 1993 - The Getaway (Alec Baldwin, Kim Bassinger)
• 2002 - The Scorpion King (Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock)

For a more complete list, see www.filmyuma.com