Continuing a splendid series of photo-essays, Bishop introduces lizards from around the world: their habitats, egg-laying and lack of child-rearing, their specialized bodies and behaviors, their feeding and courtship. His astonishing photographs are beautifully composed and clearly reproduced. This biologist and nature photographer has a knack for showing the perfect moment: A brown leaf-tailed gecko twists up like a dead leaf, except for its revealing pink tongue; a basilisk walks on water across a double gatefold; a veiled chameleon, holding on to a twig with its prehensile tail, stretches a long tongue forward at least the length of its body, catching a cricket. The author illustrates details mentioned in the text: the Komodo dragon's forked tongue; a flying dragon's skin flaps; a bearded dragon emerging from the leathery folds of its egg. The well-organized, two-leveled text is equally inviting, opening with the euphonious “Lizards lead lives that are full of surprises.” Pictures are clearly captioned, and the magnification of animals shown at actual size or larger is indicated. For reading aloud or reading alone, this is another gem. (index, further reading, glossary, website) (Informational picture book. 4-10)
