Illus. in full color. A scintillating survey of sensational serpents, from blood-spewing West Indian boas to " flying" golden tree snakes.

This slim introduction offers barely enough information to whet one's appetite. Penner opens with a brief explanation of how an Indian snake charmer "charms" a cobra, and alludes to snakes in mythology and ancient history. The minimal text then describes some of the major physical and behavioral characteristics common to all snakes diet, various hunting and feeding methods, birth of young and special characteristics of assorted species. Full-color drawings of 30 representative species from around the world accompany each page of text. While they are adequate depictions, those of humans are mediocre; most of the children look like short adults. Although the book is clearly written, it suffers from poor organization; topics are addressed in random order. Also, the coverage is superficial. Descriptions of anatomy, methods of locomotion, and growth and development are particularly sketchy. Patricia Lauber's Snakes Are Hunters (Crowell, 1988) and Seymour Simon's Snakes (HarperCollins, 1992) provide more in-depth information on the same subject; the latter title also offers superb photography that gives a truer sense of the nature of snakes."
--School Library Journal