The Dangerous Snake and Reptile Club by Daniel San Souci

Three brothers go on a family vacation and one finds a snake, one finds a bunch of tadpoles, and one finds a dinosaur bone. They bring all of their findings back home to show their friends and the group of all boys decide to start a club in their clubhouse. Eventually, they charge people to walk through and see all of their "exhibits." The snake gets out one day and the boys don't find him until it scares their mother and her friends who are having lunch at home. After finding the snake they decide it would be best to let all of their reptiles go and they close down the reptile club.

This book was a really fun read and I thought it was a good story. However, there were definitely parts that teachers would need to take into consideration before using it in their classrooms. The three brothers go on a family vacation and they go with their entire family; mom, dad, sister, the brothers, and the family dog. This is important to consider because a lot of children don't have families that look like this and a lot of children don't go on big vacations like this. Also, the mother stays home all day and in the story she has friends over for lunch. Many students don't have mothers that can stay at home with them every day. There is also a family dinner scene where the family is discussing the decision to let the snake go. I have eaten family dinners occassionally but they rarely consisted of group discussions on making decisions. It is really important that teachers realize that this book can be reconstructed in many ways to fit the life of any child in the classroom, not helping the child make themselves "fit" into this story.