Beware of the Crocodile

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This engaging introduction to the lives of crocodiles begins with a focus on their hunting methods and food consumption, then moves on to their excellent parenting skills. Then comes the big reveal about a link between these two aspects. The language is colloquial while featuring literary devices such as alliteration - ‘snoozing on a sandbank’ - and simile – suggesting that the nest where the mother crocodile lays her eggs is ‘like built-in central heating’.

Satoshi Kitamura’s illustrations don’t hold back on the depiction of big sharp teeth, but there is always a humorous glint in the eye of these fearsome beasts appropriate in a book for young children in which the text also doesn’t go into too much gruesome detail – it’s just hinted at using terms like ‘twirling and thrashing.’

As with other volumes in the Nature Storybook series, there are interesting gobbets of information aside from the central narrative in a different font, plus an index to introduce children to this concept which is such an important feature of information books as they get more complex.