Snakes and Other Reptiles: Mary Elting

Kids who love snakes will love this book; so vibrant and realistic are the pictures in this large-format book that it should come with a warning for all others. A pygmy python is shown constricting a scrabbling gray mouse, and a rock python bulges as it digests a goat. Elting's accompanying text is matter-of-fact, in some ways upstaged by the illustrations. There are details that will provide young readers with hours of horrible fascination; facts, like the unfortunate goat, will just slip right down. Ages 8-12. (November)