Alligator Boy - Hardcover

Rylant, Cynthia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152060928 ISBN 13: 9780152060923

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers, 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 Author:

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.

From School Library Journal:

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
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About this edition

• Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0152060928
• ISBN 13: 9780152060923
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Goode Diane