My Baby Crocodile

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

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Description

"Klingers translation is skillful, and the story has the scale and gravity of a novel. Is this love or dtente Its for readers to decide." Publishers Weekly


Told from two different perspectives,My Little Crocodileis a picture book about a chance meeting between an old crocodile and what he believes to be a baby crocodile. But the baby the old crocodile thinks he sees is rather a small boy wearing a knight's costume, and it's his helmet that deceives the croc's old eyes. By the time the error is corrected and the boy's true nature is revealed, the two characters have become closeclose enough to play together well and to learn to eat each other's foods, or at least to taste them! This is an imaginative, poignant, gorgeously illustrated story of a lonely child who discovers both tenderness and profound complexity within his playmate, and within himself, of course, as well. Eventually, they part ways with a hug. Quite wonderfully, however, the young knight continues to carry the old crocodile within himself as he grows up, as the story's end reveals.


For older children and young adults, this is a story about how we negotiate the different aspects of our own selfhood, how we become conversant with them, and become ourselves through acceptance of contradictions, both within and outside of ourselves.

Reviews

"Klinger's translation is skillful, and the story has the scale and gravity of a novel. Is this love or detente It's for readers to decide." ---- Publishers Weekly "A tender episode, if an odd one." Kirkus Reviews "Doremus' scratchy colored-pencil drawings are uproariously funny, depicting the giant rosy croc obliviously trying to care for the knight, whose helmet carries a surprisingly rich range of expressions. The text, moreover, in a scrawly red font, amplifies the humor with its hilarious contrast to the artfully abstract pictures." Booklist "A spirited tale of love, loss, and the endurance of friendship." School Library Journal "Changing perspectives accompany beautiful illustrations in a slightly elongated picture book that will stand out in many ways." The Easy Reader Shelf

Author Bio

Born in 1971, Gatan Dormus received his degree from the School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg, France, in 1999, after which he picked up a few other degrees while creating picture books and illustrations for the press. Dormus has illustrated over twenty books and has produced hundreds of editorial illustrations and cartoons. He loves to bicycle ride, walk in the mountains, and eat green tomatoes with cinnamon. In 2006, he became a papa.