Sharp, Shiny White Teeth (The Enormous Crocodile - Roald Dahl)

Member Name: historywitch

Product:	The Enormous Crocodile - Roald Dahl
Date:	01/09/09 (96 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Dark, Humorous, well illustrated, fun, thrilling, well written

Disadvantages: May be a little too dark for some delicate souls

Roald Dahl was, as most children and adults know, an author of some note and merit. His books and stories for adults and children are cleverly written, dark and often surprisingly sinister - he is responsible for some very frightening characters and unsettling stories. They also have a humour to them, something edgy, almost naughty about them. To this day I can remember the plot and characters of every Dahl book I have read; given the amount I have read this is quite an achievement for any one author. I remember this one with particular fondness and I bought it as much for myself as for my daughter.


***Story***

The Enormous Crocodile is bored with fish and comes up with some 'secret plans and clever tricks' in order to add children to his diet. He sets off for the local town and meets four other animals on the way who he frightens as he hints at his horrible plans (lots of bits about bone crunching and squishing). Once at the town he makes four attempts at gobbling up children by disguising himself as a tree, a see-saw, a carousel animal and finally a bench. Each plan is thwarted by one of the animals he met on the way to the town, ending with him being thrown into the sun by the elephant and being sizzled up like a sausage.


***Illustrations***

This book, like many of Dahl's books is illustrated by the superb Quentin Blake. His pictures are full of movement, colour and life, a perfect complement to the prose on the page. The expressions on the faces of the characters are fantastic, it is amazing what Blake can convey in just the raising of an eyelid or the turn of a scaly lip!

***Opinion***

We love this book and read it at least once a week. Even though it is quite long (takes me about 20 minutes to read from cover to cover) it is ideal for our four year old as a transition between picture books and books for slightly older children with fewer illustrations. The language is fantastic as Dahl peppers the book with not just made-up words ('mushious', 'grumptious') but little-used words such as 'gollop' and 'beastly'. The different animals are just crying out to be read in different voices and much of the gruesome language virtually forces you to add scary inflections to your voice. Words and sentences are repeated for each of the scenarios which makes it all flow together nicely and makes it easy for young children to follow. The repeated thwarting of the crocodile also means that there is plenty of tension and excitement as the crocodile sets up another clever plan and almost, almost gets the children each time before being rumbled.

I was a little nervous that my daughter would find it frightening because the story is quite bloodthirsty and the thought of a clever, child-eating crocodile gave me the willies as a child. Thankfully because the children were saved every time and the crocodile comes to a rather unpleasant end, as well as Dahl's use of humour throughout this becomes a merely slightly dark and mildly scary story rather than full on frightening.


***Price***

This book comes in several different versions. I personally prefer the smaller version at 64 pages and £4.99 as it looks more like a book for older children. The larger size version at 32 pages and £6.99 is also available, as well as audio versions, hardcover versions, older versions, cheaper versions online etc etc etc.

Summary: Great childrens book