HOW TO PROMENADE WITH A PYTHON (AND NOT GET EATEN)
Illustrated by Kathryn Durst
Published by Tundra, 2021
One of CCBC’s Best Books for Kids and Teens, Fall 2021
In this hilarious new graphic non-fiction series, a savvy cockroach shares wise tips and tricks to surviving an encounter with a charming predator who may (or may not) want to be your friend.
Celeste is a cockroach, and everyone knows that cockroaches are survivors, so who better to give advice on surviving an encounter with a polite predator? Everyone also knows that taking a moonlit promenade with a deadly reticulated python (named Frank) is a very bad idea. But Celeste loves very bad ideas, and she is willing to put your life on the line to prove herself right! Need to stop a python from swallowing you head-first? Wear a lamp shade as a hat! Want to speed up a three-hundred-pound snake? Try roller skates! What’s the perfect light snack for a python? A chicken! Using her superior pythonine knowledge, Celeste comes up with various strategies and solutions — many dangerous, most absurd, but all based on the biology of pythons. Meanwhile, Frank is hatching his own plans.
Reviews:
“Durst's digitally finished crayon pencil pictures are appropriately lively and goofy, and her naïve anatomical graphs are equally comical and effective. Try this at storytime, when it’s likely to please both snake-lovers and snake-haters.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
“Rachel Poliquin has given Celeste a chatty voice that keeps the facts-filled text from sounding pedantic, and Kathryn Durst . . . extends it with her comically funny depiction of the characters and their actions.” —Montreal Gazette
“A clever and entertaining approach to discovering the pertinent factual aspects of pythons while enjoying a goofy, easy-to-read story.” —CM Magazine
Tundra has made a fun couple of activity pages to improve your python knowledge. You can download a PDF of the file here and see more of Tundra’s activity sheets here. I’d love to see what your anti-squeeze shield looks like.
