In this retelling of an Australian folktale, Old Man challenges the animals to enter a singing contest. Snake, knowing that his voice will never win, swallows Lark and tricks her into singing through his mouth. Snake's ruse is discovered when Lark scratches his throat and escapes. Full color.

The singing snake is about a snake who wants to win a contest given by an old man. The old man wants to make an instrument modeling an animal on the island and snake wants to win. In order to win, he swallows a singing bird, and fools the old man. When the contest is over, and snake has won, the bird escapes. When everyone found out what he did, no one wanted to be friends with the snake. Now in Australia, if someone can not be trusted, they are considered to be a "snake in the grass".

The author used short sentences, and was very direct through the story. This story is the retelling of an old folk tale. The illustrator used paint to create color illustrations. The paintings weren't realistic, but were creatively done, and complemented the story well. ( )

Sanke wanted to win the singing contest on the island so badly, but he did not have the most beautiful voice. Hark had the most beautiful voice, and snake came up with a sneaky plan. Snake swallowed hark just enough so that when he opened his mouth, hark would sing a song of sorrow and it appeared that snake was singing. Snake won the singing contest, but whenever he was asked to do an oncore, hark scratched his throat instead of singing. Snake coughed up hark and was caught. Today this island is known as Australia, and someone who can not be trusted is called a 'snake in the grass.' ( )