Verdi

Young Verdi doesn’t want to grow up big and green. He likes his bright yellow skin and sporty stripes. Besides, all the green snakes he meets are lazy, boring, and rude. When Verdi finds a pale green stripe stretching along his whole body, he tries every trick he can think of to get rid of it—and ends up in a heap of trouble. Despite his efforts, Verdi turns green, but to his delight, he discovers that being green doesn’t mean he has to stop being himself. “Cannon is on a roll, her gift for creating memorable characters and scenes on glorious display in this tale of a feisty python hatchling.”—Publishers Weekly

A young python does not want to grow slow and boring like the older snakes he sees in the tropical jungle where he lives.

Young Verdi doesn’t want to grow up big and green. He likes his bright yellow skin and sporty stripes. Besides, all the green snakes he meets are lazy, boring, and rude. When Verdi finds a pale green stripe stretching along his whole body, he tries every trick he can think of to get rid of it—and ends up in a heap of trouble. Despite his efforts, Verdi turns green, but to his delight, he discovers that being green doesn’t mean he has to stop being himself. “Cannon is on a roll, her gift for creating memorable characters and scenes on glorious display in this tale of a feisty python hatchling.”—Publishers Weekly

Children's Literature

In this delightful story, a young python named Verdi loves his bright yellow skin and cannot understand why his mother wants him to grow up and become big and green. Proud of his saffron scales, he ventures up to the treetops to find out what's so great about being green. After meeting a group of lazy, boring, and rude green snakes, Verdi decides that green is out! While trying to maintain his lemon-colored skin, he ends up in a heap of trouble. Rescued by the older snakes, Verdi recuperates on a tree and listens to their interesting tales about their youth. Despite his efforts, he turns as green as the leaves on the trees and discovers that being green does not mean that he has to stop being himself. When he meets two young and very yellow pythons, he surprises them by doing a fancy figure eight. The same author/illustrator who created the award-winning book Stellaluna uses brilliant illustrations and well-crafted text to bring readers face-to-face with snakes and their different stages of development. Youngsters will treasure this colorful foray into the tropical world of slithery snakes.

Janell Cannon's picture books have won many awards and are beloved around the world. Before she became a full-time creator of books for children, she designed and produced summer reading programs at her local public library. Born and raised in Minnesota, Ms. Cannon now lives in Southern California.