Happy Chinese New Year!

image from etsy

Happy Year of the Snake!  

Chinese New Year this year falls on February 10th... what will it bring you? You can peek at a few predictions for the year at Elephant Journal, if you are at all intrigued by such things.

To continue a yearly tradition, here is a list of books featuring snakes:




1. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

Kaa is a character in Kipling's Mowgli stories. Unlike in the Disney films, in the book Kaa is "an exceptionally long, yellowish Python molurus." Also unlike the film, in the original book Kaa is one of Mowgli's mentors and friends. He is a powerful snake, more than a hundred years old and still in his prime.






2. The Greedy Python by Eric Carle

This story follows a familiar folktale pattern; in The Greedy Python a  snake eats every creature he comes across in the jungle, until he is enormous. All the animals inside befriend one another and kick at the python from the inside until he disgorges them all. Still hungry, he espies his own tail, gobbles it down -- and disappears.




3. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Who can forget the boa constrictor who has swallowed an elephant! Or is it a hat?....

Snakes also play a role in the end of this story but that part is a little sadder so I'll stick with the hat mistake for the snaky bit of this story.





4. The Speckled Band by Arthur Conan Doyle


And now for something a little more adult! 

One of the great Sherlock Holmes short stories, this one features a mysterious death, a trained snake who comes to a whistle (odd since snakes are deaf, but oh well, suspension of disbelief!) and Holmes' trademark sleuthing. A thrilling read!