Book Review: "The Enormous Crocodile" by Roald Dahl, pictures by Quentin Blake

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I've been more familiar with film and television adaptations of Roald Dahl's books than the actual books themselves. I never read them, especially after seeing the films "James and the Giant Peach," "Matilda" (1996), and "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory;" heck, he even wrote the screenplay to "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"- all of which I didn't like. I picked up The Enormous Crocodile out of a pile of free books on a whim. I had heard Dahl's publisher was going to start changing some of his works, and I figured I'd grab this thin Scholastic edition in case it was one of the stories in the woke's sights. It was. There are spoilers throughout the rest of the review.

Highlighted by Quentin Blake's wonderful illustrations (dubbed "pictures" in my older copy), Dahl tells the story of an enormous crocodile who decides he's hungry for children one fine day. He gloats to other animals in the jungle, telling them all he has "secret plans and clever tricks" to attain his meal. He finally lumbers into a town to put these plans and tricks in motion, not expecting the reactions from the animals he has gloated to.

The story is cute, probably more appropriate for grade school children than toddlers. The Enormous Crocodile doesn't learn any sort of lesson, and the ending is not one of hope and rainbows. Parallels can be drawn between the story and today's online narcissism even though this was published in 1978. A little online reading shows that the original publishers were removing the description of the children as "ugly" and "fat" and identifying them as "children," not "boys and girls." Of course, none of these changes make much sense. While new readers may not notice or care, changing Dahl's original language softens the Crocodile as the villain in the story. His dialogue already sounds more like letters written by serial killer Albert Fish than an imaginary hungry crocodile, but these few words might make a fat kid feel bad about themselves? I'm literally morbidly obese and well aware of my physical appearance, but I am not hoping someone will change the world around me to fit my feelings.

I might pick up more Dahl as time goes on, avoiding any new woke editions. This was a nice introduction to the author, and I'll release it back into the wild.

BOOK REVIEW INDEX

(alphabetical by primary author's last name)

D
-Dahl, Roald, pictures by Quentin Blake. The Enormous Crocodile

P
-Paley, Jane. Star Wars: R2-D2's Mission: A Little Hero's Journey

Book Review: "Star Wars: R2-D2's Mission: A Little Hero's Journey" by Jane Paley

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While I usually did not review my sons' books when they were growing up, this one deserved a mention, especially at the price on the back cover of the copy we had. This is a board book, with thick cardboard pages. The difference is there is a plastic R2-D2 suspended in the spine of the book by a piece of nylon string. When you open the book, there he is, as if in the action being illustrated on the pages. Cute, huh? The very, very basic story is the first "Star Wars" film, or I should say the first half of the first "Star Wars" film retold from R2-D2's point of view. We see Princess Leia put in the data, he is bought by Luke Skywalker, they are saved by Obi-Wan Kenobi, who dutifully retrieves the data. The End. The book is pretty harmless for kids, not dragging in any violence, battles, or even Darth Vader. Actually, younger kids might get a shock if they think "Star Wars" is about a cute robot and nothing more.

The plastic figure suspended on the string makes it difficult to shelve this little book. I was counting the days when the string would snap, and the story will be read with a gaping hole in the pages. The toy itself is nothing to look at, soft plastic and an assembly line paint job. The illustrations border on the old "Saturday Night Live" adventures of the Ambiguously Gay Duo, not meant to do anymore than draw the characters to be vaguely identifiable. Obi-Wan looked like Santa Claus, and Luke Skywalker looked like Princess Diana. The book is sixteen pages and cost a small fortune. Thank goodness we received this in a box of discarded toys from a cousin who had grown out of it. Any "Star Wars" completist might like this, others beware.