Verdi

Title: Verdi
Author: Janell Cannon
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Reading Level: 2 and up
Pages: 42
Genre: Picture Book





Summary:

Verdi loves his bright yellow skin and his black stripes. When his mother tells him to go grow big and green he can't understand why. He decides to ask the green snakes but they are boring and rude! So Verdi decides he will be the speediest snake and jump and climb so that he stays yellow. He grabs onto a branch and flings himself into the air. He has so much fun, but at his first molt he notices a long green stipe on his body. He is mortified! How could this have happened? He grabs leaves and jumps into the water trying to rub off the green. A fish almost eats him, but Verdi bites his nose and he is flung into mud. It covered him all over and it didn't feel very good, but at least he wasn't green. Once the mud dried it began to crack and Verdi was greener than ever. He grabbed a branch and flung himself into the sky again. However, he fell to the ground and he couldn't move. The greens had been watching him and they came to the rescue. They splinted him to a branch and all he could do was listen to them. He was shocked to hear that they had been just like him when they were young. When he was healed they untied him and told him he could come join them. He didn't feel like he was ready yet, but he sat there while the sun set. He loved the night life and how the moon changed. Soon he was so green that he blended into the leaves. One day two young snakes came up to him and joked about how lazy he was. He remembered how he was like that and then he asked the yellows if they wanted to climb trees and see his figure 8. They did a triple firgure 8, and Verdi was glad that even though he was green he was still Verdi. Each spread in this story has a full sized picture on one side. The deatail of the snakes is adorable and fun to see. The detail of the scenery is also beautiful and fun to search through. When the snakes smile you see their tongues sticking out, and you see all their emotions in their face.

My Reaction:

I think this is a great book. It is fun to read at and to look at. It's fun to see how it is a cycle with the snakes. They all didn't want to be green, and then once they were green they were content, and they were teased by younger snakes. I just love it all.

Potential Problems:

Unless a child is deathly afraid of snakes I don't see any potential problems with this book.

Recommendations:

I recommend this book for a read aloud in a class. It's fun, and it teaches that it's okay to grow up because you can still be you.