Snakes: Biggest! Littlest!

by Sandra Markle, Joe McDonald (Photographer)

One snake can be as long as a city bus—that's big! Another snake is as little as an earthworm. How does it help one snake to be big? How does it help another snake to be little? Sandra Markle answers these questions for young readers, while dramatic photos from around the globe show the features that make snakes unusual. Every snake has parts—like fangs or special scales—that allow it to live in its specific place in the world, and now readers can see them up close. As readers slither into the world of snakes, they will come to understand the power of these remarkable creatures.

Genres: Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published April 1, 2005

About the author

Sandra Markle is the author of more than two hundred children's books, which have won numerous awards, including Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book, IRA/CBC Children's Choice, NSTA/CBC Outstanding Trade Books for Children, NCTE Orbis Pictus Recommended, and ALA Notable Books for Children. She lives in Lakewood Ranch, Florida and frequently travels to schools sharing her program "Sandra Markle's Books Are REAL Adventures."

Reviews

[Kathy Maggiacomo · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great nonfiction book about snakes. I love the pictures and captions and pronunciations. I must admit I don't like some of the pictures because they are a bit gross but I think students would find it fascinating to see a snake eat a gazelle. I especially liked learning new facts about snakes, such as, the Cantil uses the end of it's tail as BAIT. It looks like a worm, totally different than the rest of it's body and when a lizard or frog tries to eat the "worm" then the Cantil eats the frog or lizard. How cool. I learned about it's forked tongue, I knew it had one but now I know why. I also liked the world map at the end and am very thankful the really big/long snakes don't live anywhere near me.

[KaitandMaddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting facts. I wish the snake’s geographical location was shown on each page, rather than the end. Kait was pretty knowledgeable about snakes before we read and was quite interested.

[Leslie Brevard · Rating 5 out of 5]

3rd- 5th grades
McDonald did a great job on the photographs that he used in this book. They were all realistic and even made me wiggle a little because I do not like snakes. The picture of the African Rock Python eating the gazelle was pretty amazing. I think that students will love this book because of all the interesting looking snakes. The text is large and spaced well so even maybe a second grader could read this book. There are not a lot of words on the page, but some of the words are a little complicated. This book has a lot of negative space as well. I think the children will enjoy this book because it is not very long and the pictures are very interesting.
Science/ Language Arts
After reading this book I will have the children pick their favorite snake and find out more information on it. They would then give a three minute presentation on why they choose that snake and what was most interesting about that snake.