Author: Janell Cannon

Grades: Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd

Synopsis: Young Verdi doesn’t want to grow up big and green. He likes his bright yellow skin and sporty stripes. Besides, all the green snakes he meets are lazy, boring, and rude. When Verdi finds a pale green stripe stretching along his whole body, he tries every trick he can think of to get rid of it–and ends up in a heap of trouble. Despite his efforts, Verdi turns green, but to his delight, he discovers that being green doesn’t mean he has to stop being himself.

Debrief Questions:

• Why didn’t young Verdi like the older, green snakes? Did his assumptions about the green snakes turn out to be right or wrong?
• Was being green as bad as Verdi thought it would be? Why or why not?