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Title: Crocs!
Author: David Greenberg
"K-Gr 3 — Unpredictable, this story is a bit like a submerged crocodile; you never know what it might do next. The rhyme opens with an illustration of a red-headed boy, flanked by a cat and a dog, looking out the back of a yellow cab ('It really is a pity/that you had to leave the city/Because of all the horrifying critters'). Among the pests are 'Roaches in your omelets/Pigeons dropping bomblets/Wild poodles stalking you in gangs.' The child goes to an island where there are 'birds and butterfly/Breezes flutter by...,' and finds himself in a hammock where crocodiles are everywhere and about to stage, what initially appears to be, a coup. The zany illustrations-done in mixed-media, soft-palette watercolors with pen and ink-use plenty of white space and add humor and charm to the perfect-pitch verses. The crocs are the storybook kind and will win readers over. Who can resist 'A crocodile chef with a wok/Crocodile teens/In sagging jeans/crocodile fireman, crocodile cop?' A superb read-aloud."
School Library Journal
Teresa Pfeifer
Alfred Zanetti Montessori Magnet School
Springfield, MA
"Greenberg has mellowed some since the gleeful grotesqueries of his glorious Slugs! (1983), but his penchant for creatures creepy and crawly hasn't abated a jot. Having survived Bugs! (1997), Skunks! (2001) and Snakes! (2004), the stolid young hero decides to eschew the terrors of the city and take a vacation to a tropical island. Unbeknownst to him, the island he has chosen is quickly swarmed by crocs of every size and mannerism. Fortunately these are friendly reptiles, and even when the island itself is revealed to be a gigantic croc on its tummy, the boy is still crowned king (in a rather Sendakian twist), and everything is swell thereafter. The bouncy verse emphasizes the wry while Munsinger's pictures lighten some of the tale's darker elements, making for a perfect mix of scary and fun. For fans of the pair's previous books, this title will offer much of the same with a sweet edge entirely its own. (Picture book. 4-8)"
Kirkus Reviews