Rattlesnake Dance: True Tales, Mysteries, and Rattlesnake Ceremonies (by Jennifer Owings Dewey)

Warning: Once readers fall under the spell of RATTLESNAKE DANCE, they'll have a hard time wrestling loose from its reptilian grip. The book's descriptive passages are as sharp as rattler fangs.

The autobiographical tales provide the perfect backdrop for amazing rattlesnake facts: Heart patients take rattlesnake venom as medication (it poses no danger when swallowed), human saliva is as toxic to rattlesnakes as their venom is to us, and more people die of lightning strikes each year than from snakebites. The author's third autobiographical story, about a pair of rattlers engaged in a macho wrestling match, lacks the human-interest angle that fortifies the first two. Still, readers will be entertained by the tale of two male snakes at odds in the Wyoming prairie. And the thoughtful, subtle illustrations, punctuated by vibrant detail, add another dimension of reality to the bracing stories.