Counting Crocodiles
by Judy Sierra.
Harcourt Brace, 1997


Go behind the scenes of "Counting Crocodiles"
in the Art Process section!
Monkey sets her sights on a banana tree across a sea of crocodiles.

Tired of sour lemons from the sole tree on his island, monkey spies a banana tree far off across a sea of crocodiles. Appealing to the crocodiles' vanity, she cleverly persuades them to line up for counting, leaping across their backs to reach the coveted tree.

To catch all that is really going on in this simple counting tale by Judy Sierrra, the reader must take time to bask in its pictures and float with the pages. With her sidekicks fox and snail, monkey bounds through cumulative scenes full of small visual jokes; readers will delight in discovering three men (crocs) in a tub, calamine lotion for the chicken (croc) pox, and the small clues along the right page edge that foretell the next punchline. Will's crocodiles are fully reptilian but wonderfully animated and playful. They seem not to mind being outwitted as monkey returns not only with an armful of bananas, but with a slip of the tree itself, plus the perfect companion to life on an island: a book.

Reviews

Children's Books Editor's Recommended Book

Counting Crocodiles may feel familiar to you, perhaps due to its folktale roots, maybe because Will Hillenbrand's artwork is so marvelously, comically, stylistically perfect, or perhaps because the delightful rhyme is so much like that of Lewis Carroll or Edward Lear. Here's a sample:

"On an island in the middle of the Sillabobble Sea
lived a clever little monkey in a sour lemon tree.
She ate lemons boiled and fried,
steamed, sauteed, pureed, and dried.
She ate lemons till she cried,
'I'm all puckered up inside!'"

Meanwhile, Hillenbrand's full-page illustrations provide unending delights. In the first, most lemony of spreads, the snail is holding a whole lemon in her mouth, the fox has a glass of lemonade, and the lemon tree is laden with a blender, juicer, rolling pin, peeler, spatulas, and pans. The monkey looks suitably soured by the whole state of affairs.

On the second page, the monkey spies a banana tree on a similarly deserted island. Of course, she craves a few of these fine fruits. And she wonders aloud how many crocodiles there might be in the SillabobbleSea. One crusty croc emerges to imply slyly that there are so many crocs that she could easily walk on their backs to the banana island, and invites her to count them. She counts them:

"... one crocodile with a great big smile,
Two crocs resting on rocks,
Three crocs rocking in a box,
Four crocs building with blocks,"
and so on, until she counts "Ten crocs dressed like Goldilocks."

Impatiently, the rascally reptiles ask her how many of them there are, she stalls, she counts them again, and lo and behold! in all the splashing and cavorting, the monkey (with the help of the fox and the snail) gets her bananas! This is one of the most delightful picture books around! (Ages 4 to 8)

From Horn Book
A clever monkey, tired of the lemons on his island, tricks a family of crocodiles into helping him get to another island to eat bananas. The rhyming story incorporates several Pan-Asian folktale motifs before deviating into a silly counting book. Hillenbrand's energetic paintings add humor and movement. -- Copyright © 1998 The Horn Book, Inc. All rights reserved.

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