Great little story about a gopher snake (rattlesnake lookalike) captured by "an oily, filthy, fleshy human child" who adds her to his collection of reptiles and insects and names her "Crusher". Crusher wages her own silent protest by refusing to eat first the dead mice that Gunnar tries to feed her, then the live mouse that she names "Breakfast". Crusher's sarcastic wit is what turns this ordinary tale of a child's indifferent interest in the pets he has captured and placed in cages, into the almost poetic musings of a reptile's observations of human quirks and shortcomings. Along the way, kids will pick up the message that wild animals do not make good pets, especially if kept in cages and neglected. Great for grade 4and 5.