Nic Bishop Snakes

Nic Bishop Snakes      Scholastic     2012

Nic Bishop is a nature photographer turned author. His books always deliver stunning photography, and as consequence, they are very attractive and engaging to students. Additionally, the text is informative, engaging, and not too dense.

The approach is that of a general overview. Instead of taking a specialized approach, this book uses different types of snakes in order to illustrate the commonalities that snakes share.

Naturally, in explaining these common traits, the author makes sure to acknowledge the diversity of different types of snakes, and their divergent characteristics within the text. Similarly, the captions for the photos, as well as the photos themselves, emphasize this as well.

The areas of emphasis can be sorted into the following categories.

General characteristics

Mobility

How snakes sense the world

Ways to regulate body tempeture

Hunting and feeding

Defense

Laying Eggs

There is also a great author’s note in the back in which Nic Bishop talks about the challenges of photographing the snakes for this book.