Review: Python

The python stirs. It's morning in the bush and the undergrowth is alive with activity. It's time for the python to leave her hiding place and bathe in the sunshine of a warm rock.

Her smooth scales glisten in the sun as she slithers into the branches of a tree. There she waits, 'smelling' the air with her forked tongue - she strikes! and misses a small bird. Possum also hides, but back on the ground, rat is not so lucky . . .

This gorgeously-illustrated book is part of Walker Books' Nature Storybooks, a fascinating up-close-and-personal peek into the life of a serious of animals.

In Python, Chris Cheng has drawn kids' into the python's world, offering snippets of fascinating factual info along the way (provided in differing fontface, separate to the text). I like how this text is provided alongside the narrative to avoid being 'missed' in addendum pages.

Mark Jackson's luscious, landscape-heavy illustrations showcase this amazing animal and its best, not to mention the gorgeous Australian bush.

Vital for schools and libraries - and for nature-lovers.

Title: Python
Author: Chris Cheng
Illustrator: Mark Jackson
Publisher: Walker Books, $29.95 RRP
Publication Date: 1 August 2012
Format: Hard cover
ISBN: 9781921529603
For ages: 5 - 10
Type: Picture Book