Verdi

Plot: This story is about a young python who starts out life as a yellow but as he ages he will start to turn green. He meets some of the older green snakes and he thinks they are boring. So he keeps trying to be active and not boring to stay yellow. But, soon he realizes that he can still be

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interesting even though he is green.

Personal Reaction: I really enjoyed the illustrations because of the use of the two main colors in the story. The yellows really contrasted well with the greens in a magical way.

Teaching Implications: This story is a very good supplement for a lesson about individualism. It will teach kids just because you may mature as an adult you don't have to sacrifice your personality to be accepted.

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In his jungle home, a young python is sent out by his mother to grow and turn green. As all young pythons should, Verdi investigates to find the meaning behind becoming green. After visiting with four very lethargic greens, Verdi decides that he will never be a green; he will stay yellow and young

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forever. But in the end Verdi has to deal with the realization that no matter how badly he wants to stay yellow and young, time doesn’t stop for anyone. But he also shows the reader that just because you become a “green” does not mean that you have to give up who you are.

I would classify this book as a modern fantasy because snakes do not really talk. I really enjoyed the story, I can relate to Verdi. I do not want to grow up. And as I read it to a First grade class, I felt that they really enjoyed it also. The story along with the illustrations is captivating. The main character, Verdi, is very believable and tells the story with much compassion for life.

I would use this book as an extension for a science center on snakes or reptiles. It would be a great introduction, but it also has a list of snake facts in the author’s notes.
It would also be a good example in an Art center on the use of contrasting colors. The pictures are vivid and expressive; I think the students could learn from the example.

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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

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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.

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A beautiful picture book with a good story too!

A cute story of Verdi, a tree python. He is yellow and does not want to grow up to be a big green snake. He sees the adult snakes as boring and lazy. He wants to have fun. This gets him in a heap of trouble. These situations cause him to see things differently.

This is about a snake that is afraid of growing old and becoming lazy. Most people cannot wait to be older, but in this story the snake does not want to. So, he does everything he can to stay young. He finds ways to connect with his young self once he gets older too. This is a great story for

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children of all ages. Lessons cans be pulled from this story at any age level.

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Verdi is a cute, wonderful childrens book, that teaches a good lesson. I also loved the beutiful pictures show, when I was a child.

Young, yellow Verdi is worried that growing up means becoming a boring, green python. Verdi learns that growing up does not mean becoming boring and lazy. He learns that once he slows down, he sees things that he had always missed in his hurry to experience the world.
This book is beautifully

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illustrated. Each pair of pages is matched with a brightly painted picture on one side and text on the other.

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Janell Cannon's book Verdi is a tale about a little snake who hopes that he never grows green, old and tired. It is not until he does turn green that he understands that just because he is old does not mean that he has to be tired and cranky.

I would use this book during a unit on snakes. I would

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do a project art and let the students make their own snakes.

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A young yellow python snake, not wanting to turn green as he ages like the elders living in the jungle have.

Very good book for transitions in writing. Good mentor text.

Summary: This book is about a young yellow snake that doesn’t want to turn green. Verdi does everything to avoid turning green because that means that he is growing up. The green snakes that he is around are boring and not very nice. However, when he does turn green he embraces it.

Personal

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Reaction: This book makes me think of growing up. It would be a great book to help children embrace getting older and changing such as moving to a new building at school or going into the next grade.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. The classroom could do a unit over snakes.
2. The students could write/draw about what they want to be when they grow up.

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Summary:
This book is a book about a young, yellow snake named Verdi. His mother sends him into the forest to grow up and become green. He doesn't understand the hurry to grow up, so he spends his time trying to stay young and yellow. He goes on an adventure trying to stay yellow forever, because

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all of the old green snakes are boring and complain all the time. He eventually gets hurt and is nursed back to health by a couple of green snakes. Verdi gets sad because he has started to turn green, and he is starting to get old. But in the end, he comes across two yellow snakes, and he remembers that just because he is green, it doesn't mean he can't be himself.

Personal Experience:
I thought this was a good story. The pictures were really good, and the story kept me interested.

Classroom extensions:
In the classroom I would integrate this book if we were learning about forest, or amazonian animals. It would also be good to
talk about growing up, and that just because you're getting older, it doesn't mean you can't have fun.

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This is a wonderfully written story of a young python, a young yellow python, who does not want to grow old a boring like the adult green pythons he see around him. The art work in this slender book is absolutely breath taking. The artist has blended his colors perfectly and created life like

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studies of these wonderful snakes but not life like situations as far as the snake world goes. This is the charm of the story. Few, if any, want to actually grow older and kids in particular do not want to do and act as "boring" adults. This tale lets the child know that we all can keep our child like wonder and love of fun into our adult years. I read this one to the third graders and they catch the meaning of the story quite well with a bit of prompting. They love the pictures, in particular the ones where the author has made the snakes rather hard to spot. I also not that this is one of the more popular books chosen by the children when they have their "read alone time." An endorsement of a children by children is as about as good as it gets. I must say though, adults will enjoy reading this with the children also which I feel is important as kids can sort of sense when your heart is not really in the reading. Recommend this one highly. Very much recommend you add this one to your child's collection or to your school library.

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Verdi is the tale of a young python. Verdi doesn’t want to listen to his elders, grow up, or become boring. Like many adolescents, Verdi decides to buck his reality and venture out to change his fate. He bounces, swings, and slithers through some adventures before discovering that growing up is

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not the terrible fate he imagined. As his skin turns from sunny yellow to vivid green, Verdi makes peace with his maturity and learns some lessons along the way.

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this fun colorful book is great to teach how things grow and mature. nature of change.

This book would be great to use in Writer's Workshop to demonstrate transitions. I think students will enjoy this book because it is about snakes.

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

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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. Great for 3rd and 4th grade vocabulary lessons, students will also use the book to describe a major world ecosystem, the rainforest. students will describe the python's habitat through summarizing the events sequentially using beginning, middle, and end strategies.

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I loved this book when it was read in class. It has a great lesson on being authentic and that its okay to be different than everyone else. This book can also be used to teach weather and of course snakes!

This is great book to show the passing ot time, I really enjoyed the way Dr.Durham introduced it because I never thought about it that way. I think kids will like this book because it allows the children to see that it is okay to grow up and that it is going to happen. Being an Adult isn't so bad

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as it

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Verdi is a good book for older elementary grades because of the strong theme of individuality. This young python is sent out into the world to grow up but he doesn't want to. He meets other pythons that are older and lazy and boring. But he can't help the change, but slowly grows to accept the

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change. This is a great book to teach theme to the students as well as a great book to introduce transitions to students during writers workshop.

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Verdi is a great book to teach transitions in writing, as well as individuality, acceptance and reptiles. The kids would love this book because it is very different, the images and text are related.

This is a wonderful fantasy story with talking jungle animals that easily relate to the reader and the same type of problems they may encounter.

Verdi is a great example of a fantasy book, because snakes are talking and interacting, but people of all ages can relate to Verdi when they go through or reflect on stages in their life in which they were growing up or changing. For example, Verdi has to accept growing up when it skin color

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changes from yellow to green.
Verdi is the protagonist and becomes round by the end of the story, as he ages (changes to green) and realizes that he must change and grow and that each stage of life is important. He learned from his experiences and was thus able to relate to each of the characters he encountered more.

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