Young Verdi doesn't want to grow up to be big and green. He likes bright yellow skin and sporty stripes. Besides, all the green snakes he meets are lazy, boring, and rude. Despite his efforts, Verdi turns as green as the leaves on the trees, but to his delight, he discovers that being green doesn't mean he has to stop being himself. Full color.
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Young Verdi doesn't want to grow up to be big and green. He likes bright yellow skin and sporty stripes. Besides, all the green snakes he meets are lazy, boring, and rude. Despite his efforts, Verdi turns as green as the leaves on the trees, but to his delight, he discovers that being green doesn't mean he has to stop being himself. Full color.
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Add this copy of Verdi to cart. $14.14, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 1997 by Clarion Books.
Verdi is a young python, he is yellow with stripes and has no desire to grow up and grow green. He wants nothing but to jump, climb and keep moving around the jungle, never growing old, growing lazy and green. He wanted to keep his yellow skin and his stripes, but slowly the green started. All the while the older green snakes and other animals watched. They knew the feelings that Verdi was having, they remembered, so they tried to tell him stories to sooth him. Then, after he really had turned to green, and was enjoying watching the jungle, two young, yellow snakes came to him and he had the chance to leap and laugh again, remembering his younger days.
Every animal has its way of growing up and growing wiser, even snakes. This is a great book with lots of large wonderful pictures for the smaller kids and a great story for kids of all ages. The young Verdi is full of life and determination while the older he gets, he learns he doesn't have to loose that life just because he is getting older and greener. This is a fun book for anyone who likes snakes.
The last pages are snake facts that are also very informative and remind us that just because they can sometimes scare us, snakes are an important part of our world and that most are more helpful than harmful.
HookedOnBooks
Jun 23, 2008
Verdi: A Story of Youth and Experience
Readers will quickly see that Verdi is not just about a snake who doesn't want to change color when he matures. He is author Janell Cannon's vehicle in illustrating a valuable social lesson for youngsters. In his joy and exuberance at being young, little Verdi views the mature snakes as boring. Verdi ignores their advice, much as human children think adult advice is irrelevant to their lives. Not surprisingly, Verdi suffers from doing just what the mature snakes advised him against. The lesson is further established when these elders help him recover with their knowledge and kindness. Clearly, the implication is that youngsters truly can learn things by paying attention to caring adults in their lives. This social lesson is camouflaged with colorful pages and appealing graphics. At the back of the book are facts about the snakes and their environment, adding real science to the reading experience. A final notation is due in regards to this book. Because the entire presentation deals with animal life, the story is easily adaptable to any culture. Few children's books can claim such universal comprehension--a fact which merely caps Cannon's accomplishment in writing this outstanding story.
