Review: Emma Child, teacher extraordinaire!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 14, 2013
Emma Child knows how to get her reader’s attention as wells as any one writing educational books for children. Her previous book on SHARKS is a big success, so now she addresses SNAKES. She faces the reader head on with previously ingrained false information, challenges the reader to see the whole picture, and ends up creating a fascination about her topic complete with diagrams and photographs. For example, on writing a book about an animal that strikes fear in the mind of most every one, she begins her book as follows:  ‘Snakes can be very frightening creatures! They can also be very interesting. Just look at their strange bodies. Could you imagine having a head and body and no arms and legs?.....snakes can get around fine without legs. In fact, they can slither very quickly…etc.’In this excellent book, aided by superb photography, she delves into the anatomy of snakes, explains how their integument facilitates their more of movement, explains the different types of snakes (forest, desert, water, and tree), their sensitive eyesight, the manner in which they shed their skin, the rather amazing size of their mouths and fangs, the manner in which they ingest and digest their rather alarmingly large prey, and their behavior patterns.She then takes us through a visual and verbal description of the various kinds of snakes – sensitively adding some humor by making categories such as snake ball, snakelet, water snake (the huge anacondas of South Africa), speed demons (Black mamba), the inflatable snake (cobra), the Indian chief (corn or red rat snake), striped snake (garter snake), adjustable snake (Inland Taipan snake), tree snakes (pythons), night vision snakes (Boa Constrictors, the musical tale (rattlesnakes, of course), sea snakes, and the endangered species.Emma Child brings all of this information to the table so that facts can mix with information and admiration and the manner in which she achieves this is that of a very, very fine teacher! Grady Harp, November 13