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Python

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Python
by Christopher Cheng, illustrated by Mark Jackson
Candlewick, 2012.  29 pgs.  Nonfiction

     The python whose story this is lives in Australia. As the day begins she slithers out onto a sunny rock to warm herself in the sun. (An accompanying note explains that "like all reptiles, pythons are ectothermic" and must acquire heat from their environment rather than their bodies' burning of food/fuel.  Python is hungry today and lunges with his sharp and pointy teeth for a bird, but the bird escapes.  Later on, a mouse is not so lucky. Python, whose teeth are good for snatching but not for chewing, swallows the mouse whole and will not need to eat again for several weeks. Cheng and Jackson's lovely picture book about the potentially unlovely topic of a large tropical snake brings the natural world near for youngsters, and hopefully dear.

    
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