2025 The Year of the Snake (Part 3)

Reading about snakes does not need to be connected to the Year of the Snake, Lunar New Year or the Chinese Zodiac. It could focus on Australian resources and in particular those of Indigenous authors and illustrators. Snakes first appeared in Aboriginal rock art as far back as 6,000 years. The Rainbow serpent is still commonly featured in Aboriginal art.

Our new English syllabus in NSW asks teachers to ensure that students engage with literature from Australia, including the rich voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, so in this blog, I want to highlight resources in the library that may be shared with students so as to see what part snakes play in their literature.

Snakes are indigenous to all parts of Australia and feature strongly in the Creation stories held by Aboriginal people and in their paintings and carvings. The snake has been used as a symbol of strength, creativity and continuity since ancient times across many societies.

The Rainbow Serpent  is one of the most important stories within Indigenous culture. The Rainbow Serpent is a creator god and the most important figure in Aboriginal Mythology. There are many different stories told of the Rainbow Serpent, which are passed down from generation to generation. These stories tell of how the Rainbow Serpent shaped the earth through its movements. According to myth, the Serpent was responsible for giving life and blessing nature, but also for judging wrongdoing and issuing punishment.

This Dreamtime creature  held great powers and gave shape to the Earth. It emerged from under the ground to awaken different groups of animals. The movement of its body formed physical features like hills, gorges, creeks and rivers into the once-featureless terrain. 

Aboriginal people believe that when you see a rainbow in the sky this is actually the Rainbow Serpent making its way from one waterhole to another.

There are many picture book versions of this story, not all of which were authored and /or illustrated by Aboriginal people. The library has:

The Rainbow Serpent  by Dick Roughest and Percy Trezise  (reissued 2024)

Super Snake  by Gregg Driese

Yeye Apne Kwerlaye-Iperre The Rainbow Serpent  by Jennifer Inkamala 

Warnayarra the Rainbow Snake by School Lajamanu

The Mark of the Wagarl   by Lorna Little and Janice Lyndon

The Rainbow Serpent of the Hopkins River by Patricia Clarke

The Rainbow Serpent  by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Wunambi: the Water Snake  by Sue Wyatt and May L O'Brien

  

These two are not rainbow serpent stories, but they are Aboriginal stories, set in the Kimberly and they do feature a snake:

When the Snake Bites the Sun by David Mowaljarlai and children of the Kimberly

The Snake and the Boy by Azmen Sebastian

2025 The Year of the Snake (Part 2)

How many words for 'snakes' are there? I made a quick list...adders, asps, pythons, serpents, vipers... these are the generic ones, but when I ask the children I teach, they want to talk about specific kinds of snakes such as cobras, anacondas, boa constrictors, rattlesnakes and taipans. The library does not have books that are only about one type of snake. They are not that easy to find at the level I need and if you can find them, they are very expensive. Luckily we have lots of snake books with indexes so the students will get to be very adept at using this feature.

If we do a snake display at the library I can see that I will need to be ready to be told everything everyone now knows about snakes. I will also need to be mindful not to scare young children who do not want to know about snakes.

A good book to share with reticent children is

Anna and Otis  by Maisie  Paradise Shearring

Other 'fun' snake stories that allow for interaction with the listeners are:

Snake Brought Cake by Sam Smith and Daron Parton

Can You See Sassoon? by Sam Usher

Boa's Bad Birthday by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross

The Greedy Python by Richard Buckley and Eric Carle

Verdi by Janell Cannon

Hide and Snake  by Keith Baker

One Day in the Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Tree  by Daniel Bertram and Brian Wenzel

   

2025 The Year of the Snake (Part 1)

2025 is the Year of the Snake, the sixth animal of the Chinese Zodiac.

While the snake may symbolise evil and treachery in some traditions – the serpent represents the devil and temptation in the Christian Bible, for instance, but in Chinese culture it symbolises wisdom and agility.

Snakes will make a great first display of the year in the library! There are so many nonfiction and fiction titles in the library.  Snakes are always popular with the students and most of the books with photographs will be the first to leave the library.

Some nonfiction:

The Snake Goddess Colours the World  by Li Jian

Long long ago, the world was a colorless, gray place. It had stayed that way for thousands of years. People never expected anything different until one day, the colorful Snake Goddess, Nuwa, fell from the sky. She was determined to bring color and beauty to the gray nothingness of the earth, but all the colors kept running out through a giant hole in the sky. To fix the hole and bring color to the world, Nuwa would have journey near and far to find the five magical colored stones that were her only hope for fixing the sky.

Super Snake  by Gregg Dreise

'Way back before once-upon-a-time there was the Dreamtime and the bush was in the middle of a drought. After a storm one large rainbow curved down. The Super Snake slithered down that rainbow on to the earth and promised the Elders he could help them find water.'

Some favourite picture story books:

And some chapter books:

21st October Reptile Awareness Day

This book will not be here in time for this day as it won't be available til February 2025, but next time we celebrate Reptile Awareness Day it will be! Here is the sales pitch

This is the ultimate children's science book by DeadlyScience founder Corey Tutt, bestselling author of The First Scientists. Bursting with vibrant illustrations and cool facts about more than 60 reptiles, Corey celebrates First Nations knowledge about animals found on Country, from lizards and snakes to turtles and crocodiles.

Until it arrives you will need to make do with books you already have in the library.

Australian ones such as:

Or more generalist ones such as:

 

If you are looking for a read - aloud look for Joy Cowley's Snake and Lizard  series that begins with 

16th July World Snake day

It's World Snake Day! I'm certainly not enamoured of snakes, but the students I teach are. In fact the snake books in the library are nearly as popular as the shark books. Usually they want to borrow expository texts and marvel at the photos. We have many books that satisfy this need, the most popular probably being Damian Goodall's The Snake Book: Slip Sliding Away, but if you are looking for some picture books, these are some of the newer and more popular ones in the library:

• I (Don't) Like Snakes by Nicola Davies and Luciano Lozana
• Python by Christopher Cheng and Mark Jackson
• There's a Snake in My School!  by David Walliams and Tony Ross
• Boa's Bad Birthday by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross
• Anna and Otis  by Maisie Paradise Shearring
• I Saw Anaconda by Emma Dodd and Jane Clarke

If you want to share a short novel, try:
• Akimbo and the Snakes  by Alexander McCall Smith
• The Snake Who Came to Stay by Julia Donaldson
• Snake and Lizard  by Joy Cowley

I have written about snakes before here.