HOW TO PROMENADE WITH A PYTHON (AND NOT GET EATEN)

A colorful, zany how-to book from a Canadian author-illustrator pair with scientifically informative instructions for an excursion one should never take.

Narrator Celeste, a dapper, bow tie–and–red boot–wearing Madagascar hissing cockroach who promotes “very bad ideas,” declares herself particularly qualified to advise others on survival techniques since her species has persisted for 300 million years. To offer advice on how one can safely promenade with Frank, a 300-pound reticulated python, she chooses a brown-skinned boy, whom she dresses in knickerbockers and a top hat, as the python’s victim—a stand-in for “you,” the reader. As Celeste progresses through many scenarios to help this kid survive Frank’s adaptations for killing and eating prey, readers learn lots about pythons: their types, their physical characteristics, their adaptations for swallowing prey many times their size, fun facts about the smallest, longest, and heaviest pythons, and more. The vibrant, action-packed illustrations add both detail and humor. Problematically, though, this capricious cockroach plays with the life of a Black boy for her own entertainment while he has no agency: He never speaks or pushes back but executes all of Celeste’s directives despite clear danger to himself. Animal prey does finally enter the story, but it’s too bad animal rather than human prey wasn’t the choice throughout.

A humorously illustrated convergence of fantasy and science but a disappointing tale in the era of #BlackLivesMatter.