Counting Crocodiles [Hardcover]

Judy Sierra (Author), Will Hillenbrand (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 3 and up | Grade Level: P and up

Poor Monkey. All there is to eat on her little island are sour lemons. One day she spies a banana tree on a faraway island, but the only way to get to it is to navigate the crocodile-infested waters of the Sillabobble Sea. That’s no problem when you’re a brave and devious monkey who knows how to count to ten and back!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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 Sillabobble Sea. 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 Publishers Weekly

How Monkey gets from his small island to a faraway island where a banana tree grows may be a familiar dilemma but, as PW wrote in a starred review, "Author and artist, working with traditional materials, arrive at an altogether fresh presentation." Ages 3-7.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books (October 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152001921
• ISBN-13: 978-0152001926
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 11.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #837,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > Children's Books > Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths > Asian

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A cut above the rest - clever story, great illustrations!, September 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Counting Crocodiles (Hardcover)

We have 2 boys, and we own over 200 children's books. This book is one of the 3 best if not THE best book on our shelves. The words, the cadence, the story, and the illustrations are very clever. We like this book so much we often give it to our friends' children as a birthday gift.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Things Happen in the Sillabobble Sea!, March 18, 2003

By 

Sallie A. Martin (OK) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Counting Crocodiles (Paperback)

As a mother of a 3 year old daughter and an early childhood educator, this is probably my most favorite book available.

The story revolves around a monkey who spies a banana tree on an island across the way and tricks the crocodiles into making a bridge for him to go over and retrieve some bananas. Each page is very colorfully illustrated and is told in a very catchy poetic form. Through the story you count crocodiles from one to ten and back again. The book is short but puts a smile on your face all the way through.

This story is excellent for teaching values, sequence in stories and in counting, and is a great introduction to crocodiles. A huge fan of The Crocodile Hunter, my daughter finds this story entertaining, and is one of the only stories she asks me to read over and over. It's nice because this is one of the only stories I like reading over and over!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for toddlers!, August 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Counting Crocodiles (Hardcover)

My two year-old is endlessly fascinated by this book, it's story and it's illustrations! She can't get enough of the fanciful crocodiles with their "mohawks", or "chicken pox", and delights in the wonderful rhythm that Sierra uses to write her tale. It doesn't matter that the book doesn't tell us how many crocs there are...you can have fun counting them all together!