Customer Reviews

How to Hold a Crocodile

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book will amuse and amaze, but some of the information is wrong (mules have tails like horses, not donkeys) and there are many spelling and grammatical errors. It's not the "Encyclopedia Britannica," but "How to Hold a Crocodile' is fun to browse and is profusely illustrated. Opening the book at random, I find a full-page diagram on `How to read your palm' across from articles on `How to bring in the boar's head' and `How to bow Japanese style' (palms turned inward and resting on the thighs). The author says of the latter skill that anything more than a 30 degree bow and "you are either showing off or in so bad a spot that no amount of groveling can help you."

There is useful information in "How to Hold a Crocodile." I learned how to tighten loose screws (wrap strands of steel wool around the thread) and how to improvise an oil lamp out of cooking oil, a cork, and a piece of string (since we lose power four or five times a year), although I'll only need this skill if we run out of gas for the generator and can't find a flashlight.

There are also not-so-useful but interesting `how-to's such as holding the eponymous crocodile, taming a tarantula, and keeping storms away at sea (send a tortoiseshell cat to the top of your mast to scare away the storm demons).

If you are bored, you can learn how to play conkers (many of the skills in this book are peculiarly British), make music from teacups, blow a cork into a bottle (suck, don't blow), climb through a playing card, or tie a knot while holding both ends of a piece of string.

In the language of flowers (how to read), this book is a bouquet of thorn apples (deceitful charms), but held me peach-blossomed (captive) for several hours.

...then if it's small enough you drape it along your arm holding up it's weight. Also included calculating the date of Easter up to A.D.2000 Chinese nicotine-craving control, a few interesting games and my personaly #1 fave, a recipe for genuine Anglo-Saxon mead, a type of beer made from fermented hunny(sic).And a full menu in case you ever happen to have a panda over for dinner! For Catholics there are detailed instructions for becoming either Pope or a saint. My belief: being elected Pope is wayyy easier!

What an interesting book! It is just filled with great projects for children to try - just to see if they will really work. Even as I got older, I enjoyed rereading it because of the hundreds of quirky (and sometimes useless) "How To:" articles!

This has truly been one of my most cherished books since I unwrapped it at my ninth birthday party. From that day on, it went on every vacation with us, was consulted countless times throughout my life and still to this day makes me feel smart for having all but memorized the information inside of it.

How to Hold a Crocodile is full of interesting facts and detailed instructions ranging from the obscure to the everyday. Perhaps you want to build a pyramid or know pasta by its shape? This book will teach you how to light damp matches and tell a Cocatrice from a Basilisk. It was useful for me in learning how to sharpen kitchen scissors, but perhaps someday I'll use it to learn how to teach a carp to come when I call, turn an axolotl into a salamander or even roast an ox.

Along with the amusing and intruiging entries are hundreds of delightful and well-drawn illustrations which, as a child, I found just as captivating as the information itself.

This is a book bound to capture the imagination of children and widen the horizons of adults. How to Hold A Crocodile is entertaining for all ages and will make a unique gift or a quirky addition to your book collection.

My godparents gave me this book when I was a kid. There are a lot of useful and interesting topics in it, and the illustrations really help the cause. I actually used some of the information to figure out how to make proper togas when the garments were called for in a junior high skit. Other memorable subjects: how to hold a crocodile, how to identify a member of the Diagram Group, how to make a mummy, how to recognize a mythological creature, how to pickle walnuts (I secretly planned to try this, but never got around to it), how to handle a hamster, how to photograph fish, how to play various games, how to become a saint, how to take a cat's temperature. . .

Really, How to Hold a Crocodile is good for all ages. I've looked at my copy so much that the spine isn't doing so well--and it wasn't a poorly-put-together spine to begin with. I'd recommend this item as a birthday gift, graduation gift, etc. for pretty much anyone who can read English or will be able to in the future.

Information hounds will delight in this book!It contains an incredibly ecclectic mix of strange and useful facts.Houseguests never fail to comment on my own copy. Once opened its hard to put down. This should be mandatory reading for everyone! Great fun!

I was given a copy of How to Hold a Crocodile for my seventh birthday and it was an instant hit. Twenty something years later I still rely on its pearls of wisdom. Afterall who can honestly say that they haven't need to know how to how to sex an earwig, tie a toga or tell a mule from a hinny. And goodness only knows what would have happened if I hadn't learnt how to hold that crocodile.