Gift copy! My grandson has a snake for a pet, and he's also learning to read in kindergarten. I knew the snake topic would be one that would interest him. The text in the book is more difficult than I expected with a rating of Level 1, but it was still a good book for him. There was a repeated sentence on each page, and the photos were wonderful, of course. I put a photo of his snake inside the back cover and copied the repeated, patterned sentence on that page. I read the book to him, letting him help when he wanted to help, and that worked out well for the kindergarten age. After he's heard the book a few times, he'll probably be able to read it by himself. It's a great read-aloud for a boy whether he can read it or not, and he'll have a good book for reading practice in the next few years.