THE SNAKE SCIENTIST
Houghton Mifflin, 1999

"You hear them before you see them. On a quiet day, as you approach one of the dens at the Narcisse Wildlife Management Area in Manitoba, Canada, you can hear a rustling like wind in dry leaves.

It's the sound of thousands of slithering snakes.

When you look over the fence into the shallow limestone pit, at first it seems as if the ground is moving. But it's not the ground—it's 18,000 red-sided garter snakes!" —from The Snake Scientist.

This book for children in grades 4 through 8 highlights the maverick field work of scientist Bob Mason as he studies the phenomenal gatherings of red-sided garter snakes in the Narcisse Snake Pits of Manitoba, Canada. The text is copiously illustrated with photos by award-winning nature photographer Nic Bishop.

AWARDS:

• International Reading Association Award
• Named an Orbis Pictus Honor Book by the National Council of Teachers of English
• Chosen as a Bulletin Blue Ribbon by the Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books
• Honored as one of four titles for the John Burroughs List of Nature Books for Young Readers
• Booklist Editor's Choice
• Booklist Top Ten Youth Sciences Books
• VOYA Nonfiction Honor List
• Texas Bluebonnet Master List — As voted by children

REVIEWS:

"Outstanding…The excitement of science in action fills the pages..."
—School Library Journal.

"A stellar example of how good such books can be."
—Booklist.

"Montgomery's zippy text gives an engaging portrait of the scientific work, with assistants weighing snakes in margarine tubs and putting them by the handful into pillow cases, as well as the specific discoveries that Mason's group has made…Mason's general and unstudied enthusiasm for science in general will also galvanize many young readers…The liveliness of the text and the synthesis of narrative and science make this a particularly stellar entry."
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.