10 Smiley Crocs

10 Smiley Crocs by Ed Allen, illustrated by Simon Williams (Scholastic Australia)

PB RRP $9.99

ISBN 978-1-74283-635-5

Reviewed by Jenny Heslop

  Four smiley crocs baking ginger snaps.

  Four smiley crocs baking ginger snaps.

  And if one smiley croc has eaten all the scraps,

  There’ll be three smiley crocs baking ginger snaps.

10 Smiley Crocs is Ed Allen’s crocodile version of the popular 10 Green Bottles song and I found this version especially delightful. The rhyme doesn’t always work as well as in other books but it didn’t matter as there is a charm amongst the pages I found particularly attractive.

I loved the activities the crocodiles partook in – being pirates, building cubby houses, baking biscuits – and I think they will appeal to young children. And the illustrations of the smiley crocs are fabulous. My favourite page is number six where the smiley crocs are pretending to be logs in the water and a squad of frogs are leaping onto a very surprised croc. The facial expressions on the crocodiles throughout are fantastic. Have a look at the yoga page.

But mostly this book is just fun. Preschool kids will have a ball with it, with the words, with the pictures, with the hidden numbers and with the counting. This may become a favourite on the bookshelf.