by Eva Montanari
Published by Book Island ISBN 978-1-911496-11-3
Review by Derek Brazell
That first day at school can be a tricky thing for little ones, and parting from a parent at the door can feel like the end of the world. So it’s never a bad thing to start introducing the idea to pre-schoolers.
What Does the Crocodile Say? focuses on that first day from the start of the morning, and immediately kicks off introducing sounds with ‘The alarm clock goes Dringg Dringg’. This repetition of words carries on throughout the book – great for reading aloud, and no doubt fun to anticipate the sounds if the story is being read to you.
The coloured pencil crayon images are sweetly engaging, concentrating on the characters with minimal indication of the surroundings, and offering cute nursery animals that the little crocodile is placed with on this first day away from mum.
The worry of the upcoming day at nursery is amusingly conveyed by the expressions on the little crocodile’s face (mainly through the eyes) as they get nearer to the point when they are left in the nursery’s care. So can you guess what the crocodile says at that moment?!
