Fiction - Food, Fiction - Animals - General & Miscellaneous, Fiction - Children's Classics, Reptiles & Amphibians - General & Miscellaneous, Poetry - Rhymes, Nursery Rhymes & Fingerplays, Fiction - Emotions & Behaviors, Fiction - General & Miscellaneous,

The Greedy Python

Name: The Greedy Python
Author: Richard Buckley
ISBN: 9781442445772

by Richard Buckley, Eric Carle (Illustrator)

Available on Bookshop Write a review

Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.

Overview

The greedy python eats everything, from a mouse to an elephant. Nothing is too big for this snake! Children and adults alike will enjoy this humorous tale of a snake too greedy for his own good!

A greedy python eats to excess, finally eating himself.

About the Author, Richard Buckley

Richard Buckley is a much-traveled English writer of both prose and poetry. He has lived in New York, Paris, and London, but his present home is in Cheltenham, England, where he has lived for the past thirty years, bringing up two sons with his wife (and muse) Elfie. His books for children include The Dutiful Penguin, The Foolish Tortoise (with Eric Carle), and The Bird Who Couldn’t Fly (with Alex Williams).

Eric Carle was born in Syracuse, New York, and moved to Germany with his parents when he was six years old. He studied at the Academy of Graphic Arts in Stuttgart before returning to the United States, where he worked as a graphic designer for The New York Times and later as art director for an international advertising agency. His first two books, 1,2,3 to the Zoo and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, gained him immediate international recognition. The latter title, now considered a modern classic, has sold more than 30 million copies and has been translated into forty-eight languages. Eric Carle and his wife, Barbara, divide their time between the mountains of North Carolina and the Florida Keys.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet. Log in to write one.

Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This book and its companion are ultrarich, with dust jackets just like hard covers. Carle's glittering scenes illustrate the trials of an impatient tortoise who shucks his carapace in his ambition to get around faster. Buckley's jaunty four-line verses tell what a mistake that was. ``Though faster, he was not express/ And his protection was far less. . . .'' The traveler is menaced by big birds and animals; he is scorched by the sun, chilled by an inclement wind and drenched by rain. He's glad to arrive home and don the shell he vows never to leave again. In the second book, The Greedy Python serves as a merry object lesson: ISBN 0-88708-001-4 ; $3.95. (2up)

Children's Literature - Marilyn Courtot

The green snake blends in very well with his surroundings. He decides to eat everything in sight. He starts with a small mouse, then a frog, bat, fish and bird—just appetizers for this glutinous snake. He then swallows a porcupine, monkey, leopard and buffalo. Is there no end to his incredible appetite? Then he swallows an elephant and that may have been just too much. All the creatures make a dreadful din until the snake, feeling quite ill, has to cough them up. Well, is this the end? No, the greedy snake spies his own tail and since he is still hungry he eats himself up—what an end. The collage illustrations by Carle are a perfect match for this delightful story. Now available in board book form for a whole new generation of kids. Do not miss the opportunity to count to ten (all the creatures that the snake gobbles up). Reviewer: Marilyn Courtot

School Library Journal

ea. vol: illus. by Eric Carle. unpaged. CIP. Picture Book Studio, dist. by Alphabet Pr. Aug. 1985. pap. $3.95. PreS-Gr 2 Combining Buckley's original verse based on Aesop's themes with Carle's bold, vibrant collages creates a dynamic collaboration. Joined artistically for two allegorical tales, the duo blend their verbal and visual talents to create well-paced suspenseful fables. At times Buckley's terminology will elude his younger readers/listeners, but the metered message maintains a familiar pattern. Thus, integrated with the illustrations, the texts flow flawlessly in their interpretations of slow but safe and of greed. With typical aplomb Carle splashes the pages with greens, yellows, browns and blues, recreating many of his popular creatures. The foolish tortoise finds that although his shell may make him slow, it also protects him from preying animals and the elements. The greedy python, having made himself sick by gobbling up every animal in sight, finds that his last greedy gulp, his own tail, is his final gulp. Of the two tales, children will take more delight in the plight of the python due to its pervasive humor, yet both stories are painless prophets of moral values. Cathy Woodward, Lima City Schools, Ohio