I, Crocodile

by Fred Marcellino, Fred Marcellino (Illustrator)

Overview

While robbing Egypt's mummies, sphinxes, and palm trees, Napoleon can't resist bringing home a souvenir crocodile as well. All Paris is enchanted with this exotic creature. But for a crocodile with an appetite as big as his ego, being the toast of the town has its downside, too. What's a crocodile who's used to a dinner of flamingo, snake, or mongoose to make of chocolate mousse? Oh, to return to his beloved Nile! But fickle Napoleon has other plans for our hero...

Inspired by an obscure nineteenth-century French satire, I, Crocodile is the first book Fred Marcellino has written as well as illustrated.

2000 ALA Notable Children's Book
1999 New York Times Best Illustrated Book

2000-2001 Georgia's Picture Storybook Award & Georgia's Children's Book Award Masterlist

2000 ALA Notable Children's Books

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062051684
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/08/1999
Edition description:	TION ed.
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	11.25(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.35(d)
Lexile:	AD490L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Fred Marcellino's picture books include Puss in Boots, a Caldecott Honor Book; The Steadfast Tin Soldier, an ALA Booklist Children's Editors' Choice; and The Pelican Chorus, one of School Library Journal's Best Books of the Year.

His most recent books, The Story of Little Babaji and Ouch! are both ALA Notable Children's Books.

Dancing By the Light of the Moon: The Art of Fred Marcellino will open on November 9, 2002 and run through January 26, 2003 at The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. This is a comprehensive show of more than 150 pieces highlighting his children's book career, and the first museum retrospective honoring the artistic accomplishments of this remarkable artist. For more information visit, The Norman Rockwell Museum website.

Fred Marcellino's picture books include Puss in Boots, a Caldecott Honor Book; The Steadfast Tin Soldier, an ALA Booklist Children's Editors' Choice; and The Pelican Chorus, one of School Library Journal's Best Books of the Year.

His most recent books, The Story of Little Babaji and Ouch! are both ALA Notable Children's Books.

Dancing By the Light of the Moon: The Art of Fred Marcellino will open on November 9, 2002 and run through January 26, 2003 at The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. This is a comprehensive show of more than 150 pieces highlighting his children's book career, and the first museum retrospective honoring the artistic accomplishments of this remarkable artist. For more information visit, The Norman Rockwell Museum website.

Editorial Reviews

This first picture book that Marcellino (Puss in Boots) has both written and illustrated is a pi ce de r sistance. According to the witty green narrator of this singular tale, Egypt was a paradise until "(to be precise) August 17, 1799." That day, Napoleon spoils the crocodile's bulrush idyll. Seated on a white steed, the emperor orders his troops, "Mummies! I want mummies!... And a sphinx and an obelisk. Make it a big one." In refined watercolor spreads, Napoleon's soldiers obligingly plunder temples and, as an afterthought, snare the crocodile, too. "What a cruel and abrupt departure from my mudbank," the caged reptile reports from a ship laden with Egyptian booty. The protagonist's irreverent tone serves as a perfect counterbalance for Napoleon's disrespect for Egyptian culture, and the varied use of vignettes, thought balloons and spreads keeps the pacing brisk. In one series of vignettes, Marcellino chronicles the lengthy journey and the creature's near starvation ("Was anyone keeping track of all the meals I was missing?") accompanied by its hyperbolic facial expressions. Upon reaching Paris, the crocodile achieves star status in a spread that conveys a capital worthy of its nickname, the City of Lights. Later, having fallen from favor, the croc escapes to the sewer system and, in comical facing pages, surfaces to snag a high-society lunch (feathered turban and all). Although its plump pickle-shaped body, chubby legs and devastatingly polite manner don't seem threatening, this is one stolen artifact that literally bites back. All ages. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 1-4-Marcellino's first foray into writing is for seasoned picture-book readers. Children will be intrigued by the cover art-an enormous crocodile sitting on Empire-style furniture at a garden party, hungrily eyeing the guests, his menu upside down. In fact, the watercolors throughout are delightful: the oversized Egyptian reptile picturing his aristocratic ancestors (carved in stone, godlike) or performing the Crocodile Walk (bedecked in pleated skirt and breastplate) after being captured by Napoleon and installed as a fountain decoration in Paris. The pages are designed to present this crocodile of enormous ego almost as a screen star, right down to the playful iris shots in which he dreams of food. He escapes the cook's cleaver by diving into the sewer but has a problem securing food, until an upper-crust dilettante, seen in one scene and only a hat in the next, temporarily solves his dining dilemma. The jacket notes that the story was inspired by "a nineteenth-century satire by an unknown French author." This adaptation of French colonialism run amok is conveyed through a witty monologue that combines highbrow and colloquial elements. The story, however, is not as strong as the art; the singlemindedness of this animal with an attitude starts to wear thin. While sophisticated kids will find much to enjoy, general program audiences may prefer such reptilian hits such as Tomie dePaola's Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile (Putnam, 1987), Gail Jorgensen's Crocodile Beat (Aladdin, 1994), or Baba Diakite's The Hunterman and the Crocodile (Scholastic, l997).-Wendy Lukehart, Dauphin County Library, Harrisburg, PA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal