Crocodile! Crocodile!: Stories Told Around the World - Hardcover

Baumgartner, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1564584631 ISBN 13: 9781564584632

Publisher: Dk Pub, 2001

Synopsis

An international anthology of stories presents animal folktales from around the world, including India, Puerto Rico, China, and Appalachia, with full-color cut-paper artwork and suggestions for storytelling at home.

About this title

About the Author

Barbara Baumgartner works as a Library Coordinator for The Free Library of Philadelphia and teaches courses in Children's Literature and Storytelling in the Graduate Division at Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia. Barbara has collected some of her favorite folktales, from a variety of cultures, and has retold them in two DK collections, Crocodile! Crocodile! And the forthcoming Good as Gold which are suitable for reading aloud to ages 3-6 and for independent reading by ages 7-10. She began telling stories when she was a teenage babysitter, and one of her favorites at that time was "The Gingerbread Man." She is a graduate of Oberlin College (BA), Drexel University (MLS), and Union Institute (PhD). By the time she reached high school, Judith Moffatt knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life professionally: become a children's book illustrator. She often works in pen and ink and watercolor, but cut paper is her favorite medium. Ms. Moffatt is a native of Massachusetts, where she lives and works in an old farmhouse with her husband and their Airedale terrier.

Reviews

Kindergarten-Grade 3-A bright, buoyant collection of six humorous folktales-two from India, one from Puerto Rico, one from China, one from Appalachia, and a Native American legend. The endpapers, filled with green crocodiles with red tongues, will tempt readers to explore the book further. Each brief story is encapsulated within vibrantly patterned borders. The tales move along quickly, and youngsters will enjoy the terse, nondescriptive text. Although the language is ordinary, Baumgartner's direct, easily recalled style will appeal to storytellers. The selections involving animals are enhanced by Moffatt's layered paper cuts; the creatures are so expressive that at times they appear ready to jump off the page. Unfortunately, the depictions of people are static, and the Chinese characters in "The Grateful Snake" are stereotyped. (The beasts have fully developed faces, yet the humans' features are reduced to slits for mouths and slanty lines or dots for eyes). The reteller's final suggestion to extend the stories with stick puppets is a fine one (instructions are included), but surely children's creations could go beyond the simplistic square shapes represented in the text.
Ronald Jobe, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From many corners of the globe, Baumgartner, a children's librarian and professional storyteller, assembles half a dozen of her most popular crowd-pleasers, all tales that feature animals. She hasn't just rounded up the usual suspects; these are off-the-beaten-track entries--"The Squeaky Old Bed," an amusing cumulative tale from Puerto Rico; "How the Chipmunk Got His Stripes," a Native American legend about a cocky chipmunk and the bear he just barely outwits; and the title story, a trickster tale from India starring a wily monkey and his nemesis, the crocodile. Baumgartner's sure-fire read-alouds are imaginatively illustrated with Moffatt's crisp cut-paper artwork. Her compositions teem with layered figures and scenes, creating an illusion of depth; a gaily patterned border sets off each page. An afterword explains how to make stick puppets and then act out the stories with them. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Six simple retellings, the title pair (familiar as Galdone's The Monkey and the Crocodile) from India plus a Native American tale and others from China, Puerto Rico, and Appalachia. Moffatt's eye-catching cut-paper art serves a dual purpose: Enclosed with the text within gaily patterned borders, it provides fresh, lively illustrations; it also demonstrates stick puppets, which the author describes in a note to parents as an effective way to engage children in the stories. Thus, while these easily read versions aren't the first choice for storytellers (Richard Chase's ``Sody Saleratus,'' for example, is richer), they are eminently suitable as starting points for children's own dramatizations. They also make appealing nursery tales. Useful and attractive. Source note. (Folklore/Picture book. 3-9) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 4-6, younger for reading aloud. Seven traditional folktales retold in simple language and illustrated with brilliantly colored, eye-catching, cut-paper illustrations. Among stories included are an Appalachian version of the old favorite Sody- Saleratus and The Squeaky Old Bed, a Puerto Rican variant of the familiar story The Squeaky Door. A very brief section, Bringing the Stories to Life with Stick Puppets, may be a starting point for the craft- and puppet-minded, and Baumgartner does include a list of other versions of the tales presented. The text is more than serviceable and will be extremely useful for short read- or tell-alouds, while Judith Moffatt's collages are sure to attract even reluctant readers. Janice Del Negro

Edition details

• Publisher: Dk Pub
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1564584631
• ISBN 13: 9781564584632
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Moffatt Judith
• Number of pages: 45