Customer Reviews

The Snake Book

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book starts out by giving a very comprehensive section about the anatomy, hunting, evolution, habitats,and senses of the snake. Each of these topics were given two pages, of which were filled with interesting information. I keep snakes, but I still found myself learning things. After this, the book goes into a section that tells about many interesting species of snakes in a great format including color pictures. While the book doesn't feature as many species as I would have liked to have seen, the ones it does show are well chosen(for the most part). After this section, the book goes into a huge directory of genuses and species of almost all the snakes in the world(including some rare subspecies). This section of the book is invaluable for a herpitoligest or just someone looking up the latin name of a snake. Overall the book is great for average person and person who knows alot about snakes alike. I think the book could have been better if he had featured more species of snakes, but the book is fine as it is.

This book probably the BEST snake book I owned. Large of photo (I mean: really BIG photo!!, double pages). This book give you a very comprehensive section about the anatomy, how they hunt, habitats,and senses ...
It written in a very short informative way ....
I really love this book !! This book is "A MUST" for all snake lovers ...

My only problem with this book is its relatively few number of species shown. I would have liked the book to contain more species and perhaps a bit more information. But other than that the book is really great. The photos are all amazing and the snakes chosen to be included are good ones.

To begin with, after reading the other reviews here, there is an apparent problem. I am not sure what happened, but it would seem that folks are reviewing two different books! This work, ISBN 0-7566-1365-5 has the title "Snake - The Essential Visual Guide to the World of Snakes" by Chris Mattison. It is by DK Publishing and the date of publication is 2006. We seem to have gotten our snake books mixed up here. The picture featured on this page is the same that I have in front of me now and is the one I am reviewing. That being said....

This is quite a remarkable book. It gives a broad overview of the world of snakes. The author, Chris Mattison starts with a chapter which gives general information about these wonderful creatures. He discusses their evolution, various environments, size and shapes, scales and their various patterns, anatomy and mobility, sense organs, hunting and feeding methods, venomous snakes, passive defense mechanisms, active defense mechanisms, reproduction, classification systems and, very importantly, conservation. The rest of the book consists primarily of a "snake Gallery" where the author discusses various specific species. The author then adds a very nice Snake Directory where he addresses various family groups.

The photography in this volume is some of the best I have reviewed. The photographs are vivid, sharp and very, very colorful. There are 450 illustration and close-up photographs and over 60 individual snake species represented. The text is general in format with short blurbs about each subject snake and is chucked full of great snake trivia. The book is simply a joy to read, over and over again.

Now please note. This is not a complicated text ment for the expert or the advanced student. The author's intent, which is so stated by the author, is to introduce folks to these creatures, spread some basic knowledge and understanding and give some idea where these creatures fall in natures plan. The text is indeed simple, but not overly so. The author does not use highly technical terms so this work is great for not only adults, but kids in general. The book consists of approximately 192 large pages and each page is packed with good, interesting and useful information. Now I am not a "snake expert" by any means, although I have been handling, collecting, photographing and observing them for well over 50 years now. From my limited knowledge, I found no errors in the text nor any bad information. Now all of you folks out there that are extremely knowledgable in this subject, just remember that not ever one shares your knowledge and every one has to start somewhere. As you know, there are many, many technical books out there, suitable for all levels. If you fall into this category, then you probably need to seek a more specific work. Just give the beginner and the curious a chance.

This work would be wonderful for any school library, home schooler or anywhere interested and curious folks gather. I like this one setting near my reading chair as it is a joy to pick up now and then, read a bit and just look at the pictures. Recommend this one highly.

I'm a college student and I work in a Science Center with several snakes from Texas; I'm always interested in learing more about snakes in the world. This book is amazing! It covers all topics related to snake's evolution, envirnoment, size and shape, scales, anatomy and movement, reproduction, classification of snakes, among other contents! With a gallery of beautiful and large pictures of these fenomenal creatures; the only problem is that it covers only 61 species that were chosen to be in the gallery to show readers the diversity of size, color, shape, and behavior, that is excellent! But I would've liked to see more variety of snakes. As a conclusion, this book is a MUST for people interested in learning more about snakes.

Perhaps Amazon.com or the authors of previous reviews are confused about which book they're describing. The cover of the book shown in the picture is written by Mayr Ling and Mary Atkinson, not Chris Mattison. It is little more than 14 pictures (16 if you include the front and back covers) of various snakes in the same small white box. It offers nothing in the way of herpetocultural advise, or evolutionary or ecological insight. There are four to six sentences per page with cute little factoids. It is a fine book for introducing young children to a fraction of the beautiful variety of snakesThe first "editorial review" about this book from Amazon.com appears to be referring to another book called "Snake," and is misleading with respect to this book, entitled "The Snake Book." The second "editorial review" from School Library Journal seems to be a more accurate description of this book. "The Snake Book" is definitely not written for adults.

This is a wonderful book, full of captivating pictures and beautifully written explanatory chapters. A serpent enthusiast myself, I have thoroughly enjoyed this book. Its excellent visuals guide you through the first few chapters which discuss several aspects of snakes themselves. The majority of the rest of the book looks at many different types of snakes..a page or two devoted to a certain individual species. I was impressed at the variety it covered, from boas to pythons to colubreds to venomous species. I applaud the author...this book will entertain beginners to professionals. This is a must for anyone who is interested in these amazing legless creatures.
--Lauren

"Snake" is a terrific book (I give it 5 stars) with fabulous photography. Every genuine reviewer has given it 5 stars. Unfortunately Amazon seems to have confused two different books---"Snake" and "The Snake Book" because reviewer Richard Bernhardt's mediocre review of the latter book has been incorrectly posted under the first book's page and affects the star average unfairly. Also, the description of the book from the School Library Journal on the "Snake" page obviously fits the other book written for children---not "Snake," which is aimed at adults. I suspect the same mess might be occurring on "The Snake Book" page. I hope Amazon fixes this!

I wanted a more comprehensive book than this. Too bad I could not find one. It covers fewer than 150 of the more than 1850 species, less than 10%. Some of the more noted snakes of the world are not covered at all. Not the Fer de Lance (does have a small side bar on this one), not the King Cobra, none of the sea snakes. But despite this there is a complete (I think) dierctory of the snake families in the back with all the members listed telling their habitat, where they are located, whether they are egg laying or live bearing, and what they are thought to eat. It appear there is little known information on some snakes. This does make up for the lack of data in the main portion of the book.

When I was young our public library had an outstanding book on snake, no color photos but a lot of information. That was many years ago.

I read the reviews and still managed to get confused and order this disappointing book. DK publishing usually offers outstandingly detailed and beautifully illustrated books, but this one is a real let-down. The photos of the snakes are very nice, but the text is too cutesy - varying font sizes and only the most general information. We bought the book to donate to our daughter's elementary school, but it will be of little use as a research tool and the information is too simplistic to educate our snake-loving kindergartener. I'm very disappointed and expected so much more from DK.