Lions, and tigers and snakes? Oh, my...

AMENIA — The students at Amenia Elementary School were treated to a slithery surprise last Thursday, March 12.

The People as Reading Partners (PARP) program is into its fourth week now. Amenia Elementary has chosen the rain forest as its theme for this year, and students showed up for the first week to find the school transformed with murals, vines and lots and lots of fun rain forest-related activities.

Then, in the second week, the book “Snake and Lizard,� by Joy Cowley, was given to every student in the school.

It turns out that Amber and Blake Valyou had something up their sleeve for the whole school: ball pythons.

Their father is quite a fan of reptiles, so the family brought in Zar and Pythias, their pet ball pythons. Called such because of their tendency to curl up in balls when they’re nervous, the two snakes looked something like camouflaged rubber balls in the two students’ hands as they walked around the auditorium to show off their house-mates.

A fun fact about Zar and Pythias that elicited some ooh’s and ahh’s from the audience: They normally eat live mice, about once every two weeks, but one of the snakes has only eaten two times this whole winter.

Some students (and teachers) were nervous, some were excited and the majority were reservedly curious about the reptiles.

The PARP program will continue until March 27. Every week, students bring in a list of the books they’ve read, and are credited with a prize. On March 27, the program culminates in the annual Read-Aloud day and prizes will be awarded to each student who has earned at least five reading points during the previous week.