Chameleons Are Cool - (Read and Wonder) by Martin Jenkins (Paperback)

About the Book

Who can resist a pocket-sized, bad-tempered, color-changing, swivel-eyed, snail-paced, long-tongued sharpshooter? Kids won't be able to after reading Martin Jenkins's amazing portrait of chameleons. With the eye of a scientist and the enthusiasm of a child, Martin Jenkins reveals the very cool facts about chameleons' life and anatomy. Did you know, for example, that most of a chameleon's eye is covered in skin, like the rest of its body? It sees through a tiny peephole in the middle! Sue Shields's vivid watercolor close-ups bring a chameleon's unique features into startling focus.

Book Synopsis

The ability to change color, a sharp-shooting tongue, and skin covering your eyes -- now that is cool.

Read and Wonder books tell stories, take children on adventures, and reveal how big and WONDER-full the natural world really is. Back matter includes an index.

Review Quotes

May well spur a visit to the reptile house.
--Publishers Weekly

With infectious enthusiasm, a boy explains his fascination with chameleons by describing their unique physical and behavioral characteristics. Vivid ink-and-watercolor paintings realistically depict a variety of the strange-looking lizards.
--School Library Journal

About the Author

Martin Jenkins first saw chameleons in Madagascar and, he says, "fell in love with them at first sight. I picked one up, ever so gently, and it promptly bit me on the thumb. I still think they are wonderful, but tend to leave them alone whenever I bump into them."

Sue Shields had to develop a new way of painting for Chameleons Are Cool, "to try to describe not only the chameleons' astonishing colors, but also the hint of the colors they can change into."