ぼくはワニのクロッカス

by Roger Duvoisin

The barnyard friends of Crocus the crocodile love and admire him for his fierce-looking teeth. When he must have them pulled, life changes for all the animals.

Genres: Picture Books

JP Oversized

First published August 12, 1977

About the author

Roger Antoine Duvoisin (August 28, 1900 – June 1980) was a Swiss-born American writer and illustrator, best known for children's picture books. He won the 1948 Caldecott Medal for picture books and in 1968 he was a highly commended runner-up for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award for children's illustrators.

Reviews

[Heather Ligman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is bittersweet. The crocodile gets a cavity and has to have all of his teeth removed. Because of this, he feels as if he is worthless. That is where I debate is this is a good book to have in my library. The book does end on a happy note by saying don't we all have to have something that makes us feel important? But is that really what I want to teach my children?

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strange and silly tale about a crocodile who has bad teeth because he ate too many sweets. The story was published 46 years ago and I'm not sure it would appeal to children today. The illustrations are colorful and have some interesting textures; it looks like they were created using mixed media.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

While the farm animals aren't sure they can trust Crocus and his many sharp teeth, they crowd around him worship-style and are proud to have such a fierce-looking companion. When toothaches (thanks to a diet of sweets provided by farm owners Mr. and Mrs. Sweetpeas) necessitate all of Crocus' teeth to be pulled out one by one, he becomes depressed, withdrawn, and no longer sees any self value. His friends? If your can call them that! They also saw no value in Crocus. They stole his food. They deemed themselves the new "lords of the farm," justified by their horns holding more ferocity than a toothless croc could claim.

The (ungodly) moral of this story...and final paragraph summary? "Don't we all need something that makes us feel important?...For Crocus it's his teeth."

[Debby]

The barnyard friends of Crocus the crocodile love and admire him for his fierce looking teeth. When he must have them pulled, life changes for all the animals until he gets some new false teeth.

Dumb story, totally unrealistic. The colors of the animals in the pictures aren't even realistic.