Lisa Jo Rudy

Summary:The book "snakes!" is a book that talks about the lifestyles of snakes what they eat their habitat and how to identify them.
Snakes are cold blooded carnivores that consume prey by either using venom or swallowing it whole. Flexibility in a snakes jaw gives it the ability to swallow prey bigger than its head because they cant bite or chew prey. Snakes can be found almost anywhere in the world except for Antarctica and there are more than 3000 species. Snakes have interesting body structures including no internal or external ears, although snakes have nostrils to breath they use their tongues to smell and snakes have about 200-400 vertebrae and ribs.

Opinion:I think snakes are amazing creatures for many reasons as they populations in balance and are kinda freaky in amazing ways. I don't think they get enough appreciation for helping the ecosystem and reducing humans chances of Lyme disease by reducing the population of rodents.… (mehr)

The Time For Kids book about snakes is a fantastic example of a guided reading book. Not only is it an in-depth scientific look at snakes but it is also a prime example of great text features including labels, diagrams, speech bubbles ,a did-you-know text box and more! The book has some amazing close up images of snakes that really draw in the readers. This book is classified as a level 3 reading level which is defined on the back of the book as "confident reader- paragraph use sentences of varied lengths". I love how this book directly gives educators the level of text so they know when the book is applicable. One small detail I loved about the book was its use of a different texture and color snakeskin on each page. This book could be used to compare and contrast different types of snakes, be used as a science lesson about animal characteristics, a language arts lesson about what text features make a book enticing to reader, and so many more possibilities. I highly recommend using this book in grades 3+ because of its level of vocabulary as well as length of 30 pages. This book could be used over a course of multiple days as a guided reading group.… (mehr)