A young yellow snake fears his youth will fade as his skin matures from yellow to green. Verdi has different kinds of animals that can talk to each other, but they live in their natural habitat, and behave like animals. The book uses a good amount of onomatopoeias and descriptive language. The varie... more

A young yellow snake fears his youth will fade as his skin matures from yellow to green. Verdi has different kinds of animals that can talk to each other, but they live in their natural habitat, and behave like animals. The book uses a good amount of onomatopoeias and descriptive language. The variety of language tools creates great imagery in the reader’s mind. The illustrations are on the right hand side except for a few two page spreads that provide opportunity for short discussion. Since the story revolves around the snake and its habitat most of the colors are green, yellow, and brown. The colors are bright, bold, and vivid. In some instances the snake and other animals have human expressions at exciting moments. The snake takes on unlikely positions twisting in the air, being slung through the air, strapped to a branch, and figure-eighting through the air with two other snakes in a triple monogram fashion. Some illustrations have an interesting focus effect where the background is blurred and the main image is in focus. This draws the readers’ eyes to that and creates emphasis.