Alligator Boy - Hardcover

Rylant, Cynthia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152060928 ISBN 13: 9780152060923

Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books, 2007

Synopsis

A boy is just plain tired of being a boy. So, he becomes an alligator--and it suits him just fine! His worried mother is comforted by the vet, who reassures her that all will be well, as long as the young alligator boy continues to attend school, of course. Whether scaring the class bully with his commanding grin or singing from his impressive snout in the choir, this brand-new lizard is ready to live his life with great green gusto. 
    
With Cynthia Rylant's buoyant rhyming text and Diane Goode's irresistible illustrations, this inspired celebration of the power of a child's imagination is full of whimsical details and reptilian glee. 

About this title

About the Authors

CYNTHIA RYLANT is the acclaimed author of more than a hundred books for young people, and her novel Missing May received the Newbery Medal. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

DIANE GOODE has illustrated more than forty picture books, including The Story of the Nutcracker Ballet by Deborah Hautzig, which has sold more than a million and a half copies, and the Caldecott Honor Book When I Was Young in the Mountains, also written by Cynthia Rylant. She lives in Watchung, New Jersey.

CYNTHIA RYLANT is the acclaimed author of more than a hundred books for young people, and her novelMissing May received the Newbery Medal. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

DIANE GOODE has illustrated more than forty picture books, including The Story of the Nutcracker Balletby Deborah Hautzig, which has sold more than a million and a half copies, and the Caldecott Honor BookWhen I Was Young in the Mountains, also written by Cynthia Rylant. She lives in Watchung, New Jersey.

Reviews

Kindergarten-Grade 2—Inspired by a trip to a natural history museum, a boy decides he wants to be an alligator, and his aunt obliges by sending him an alligator head and tail, which he immediately dons. His worried mother calls the vet, who assures her that "It looks well." Both parents take their son's new look in stride and send him off to school where he can at last scare off a bully. On a return visit to the museum with his class, the boy faces his stuffed idol with obvious delight. Goode's watercolor and gouache cartoon vignettes on white ground are reminiscent of the artist's other work in which she evokes a former time. Mother visits the museum wearing a hat and long dress; the teacher is in a belted suit; and the students, one in a wheelchair, wear short pants and dresses. The protagonist's alligator head reflects his mood, exhibiting gleeful laughter as the bully runs away and restful contentment as he snuggles in his mother's lap. Unfortunately, this charming story is marred by an awkward rhyme scheme: "She asked a good doctor to come and to see/this boy who could not a boy now be." Still, any youngster who has ever wanted to assume more power than childhood allows will delight in the "good green life" that alligator boy enjoys.—Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the team who created When I Was Young in the Mountains (1982) comes a saga about a boy who dresses up as an alligator and shows, contrary to popular thought, that it is easy to be green. However, even an alligator boy must go to school. "The vet said he must, that it was the rule." At school, after he deals with the bully, "he found he enjoyed the student life fully." The book ends with a class visit back to the museum where he got the idea in the first place; "his days were a joy . . .What a good green life for an alligator boy." The rhymed text and simple, very appealing illustrations will make this a popular read-aloud. The illustrations show the setting to be late 1920s or 1930s, but the theme of being different is timeless. Although there is very little drama here, children will enjoy this low-key vision of the experiences wearing an alligator costume might bring. Enos, Randall
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0152060928
• ISBN 13: 9780152060923
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Goode Diane
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32