I have loved snakes ever since I was a little child. And ever since I was a little child I have read and even collected books on my favorite animals. While Snake, by Chris Mattison is a little basic for my level of experience and knowledge now, it is exactly the kind of book I would have loved seventeen years ago, and I would recommend it to anyone just getting into reptiles, or anyone who wants simply to get to know these beautiful and fascinating animals a little better.
I, and apparently the author as well, would like to emphasize the ‘beautiful and fascinating’ aspects of boas, vipers, racers, and other serpents. Too often, portrayals of snakes in non-technical media focus on them as dangerous threats to human life and safety, or as bizarre and unwholesome oddities of the natural world – mysterious and unknowable. This book, however, does a wonderful job of showing snakes to be wondrously refined living machines and the graceful and often strikingly beautiful creatures that I have always found them to be. If you are looking for a snake book for a child or anyone with a general interest and limited knowledge of the natural world, this book would be perfect to help them form a first impression of my favorite creatures.
It opens with a discussion of snake anatomy, physiology, taxonomy and ecology. These topics are laid out in layman’s terms and won’t impress anyone with more than a basic familiarity with herpetology or even biology in general, but the level of sophistication is in line with the book’s introductory role. The next section – the “Snake Gallery” – is the most fun, and presents sample species with huge color photos and the basic facts on each snake. Once again, there was little here that I, or any other snake lover didn’t already know, but the pictures are spectacular and the Gallery gives us images of snakes as creatures to wonder at and not as anything to be afraid of or nauseated by. The last section – a list of every genus and species of snake with a short description of each genus – is a little odd. Beginners probably won’t be looking for such a comprehensive catalogue, and I’m not sure why the author put it in. I would have preferred more snake profiles for the gallery, but the listing doesn’t hurt and I am always amazed at how little we know about the 3,000 or so snake species in the world. My only criticisms are that some of the captions don’t match their diagrams or photographs, and that a lot of the book is very similar to a lot of other books that Chris Mattison has written. He has done more than one book about snakes for beginners, and I wonder if he hasn’t just recycled a lot of his earlier material.




Recommended: Yes