The Greedy Python

by Richard Buckley, Eric Carle (Illustrator)

Overview

In this humorous tale about manners, respect, and friendship, a greedy python eats every creature he comes across in the jungle. From a tiny mouse to an enormous elephant, the eaten animals eventually befriend one another in the belly of the snake where they team up and kick the inside of the python until he spits them out. Rather than learning his lesson, the python sticks to his greedy ways. When he spots his own tail and mistakes it for food, he swallows himself and...disappears!

Last published as a board book in 1998, this classic story whimsically illustrated by Eric Carle returns with refreshed colors and layout, and a fresh new cover design. Children and adults alike will enjoy this hilarious tale of a snake too greedy for his own good!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416982906
Publisher:	Little Simon
Publication date:	07/07/2009
Series:	World of Eric Carle Series
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	24
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 6.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	500L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 Months to 3 Years

About the Author

Eric Carle (1929–2021) was acclaimed and beloved as the creator of brilliantly illustrated and innovatively designed picture books for very young children, including Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me; Have You Seen My Cat?; and The Tiny Seed. His best-known work, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has been translated into seventy languages and sold over fifty-five million copies. Carle illustrated more than seventy books, many bestsellers, most of which he also wrote, and more than 170 million copies of his books have sold around the world. In 2003, Carle received the Children’s Literature Legacy Award for lifetime achievement in children’s literature. In 2002, Eric and his wife, Barbara, cofounded The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art (CarleMuseum.org) in Amherst, Massachusetts, a 40,000-square-foot space dedicated to the celebration of picture books and picture book illustrations from around the world, underscoring the cultural, historical, and artistic significance of picture books and their art form. Eric Carle passed away in May 2021 at the age of ninety-one. His work remains an important influence on artists and illustrators at work today. Find out more at Eric-Carle.com.

Richard Buckley is a much-traveled English writer of both prose and poetry. He has lived in New York, Paris, and London, but his present home is in Cheltenham, England, where he has lived for the past thirty years, bringing up two sons with his wife (and muse) Elfie. His books for children include The Dutiful Penguin, The Foolish Tortoise (with Eric Carle), The Greedy Python (with Eric Carle), and The Bird Who Couldn’t Fly (with Alex Williams).

Editorial Reviews

This book and its companion are ultrarich, with dust jackets just like hard covers. Carle's glittering scenes illustrate the trials of an impatient tortoise who shucks his carapace in his ambition to get around faster. Buckley's jaunty four-line verses tell what a mistake that was. ``Though faster, he was not express/ And his protection was far less. . . .'' The traveler is menaced by big birds and animals; he is scorched by the sun, chilled by an inclement wind and drenched by rain. He's glad to arrive home and don the shell he vows never to leave again. In the second book, The Greedy Python serves as a merry object lesson: ISBN 0-88708-001-4 ; $3.95. (2up)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

ea. vol: illus. by Eric Carle. unpaged. CIP. Picture Book Studio, dist. by Alphabet Pr. Aug. 1985. pap. $3.95. PreS-Gr 2 Combining Buckley's original verse based on Aesop's themes with Carle's bold, vibrant collages creates a dynamic collaboration. Joined artistically for two allegorical tales, the duo blend their verbal and visual talents to create well-paced suspenseful fables. At times Buckley's terminology will elude his younger readers/listeners, but the metered message maintains a familiar pattern. Thus, integrated with the illustrations, the texts flow flawlessly in their interpretations of slow but safe and of greed. With typical aplomb Carle splashes the pages with greens, yellows, browns and blues, recreating many of his popular creatures. The foolish tortoise finds that although his shell may make him slow, it also protects him from preying animals and the elements. The greedy python, having made himself sick by gobbling up every animal in sight, finds that his last greedy gulp, his own tail, is his final gulp. Of the two tales, children will take more delight in the plight of the python due to its pervasive humor, yet both stories are painless prophets of moral values. Cathy Woodward, Lima City Schools, Ohio

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