Among Roald Dahls’ books, this is the funniest one I have ever read so far. It is so entertaining that I chuckle at it rather than be annoyed at the boastfulness of the greedy, enormous crocodile. I was like reading an Aesopian fable from which I could learn something that would change my other perspective on life. Plus, I missed reading another Roald Dahl’s book for his signature writing style – his fondness for using exaggerated words.

The story is intended for young children since they are captivated by books on animals. It is about an enormous crocodile who brags that he wants to eat a child and he can do it with his clever tricks. However, for the animals he meets in the jungle, he is so greedy, nasty , and stupid that he has never done anything good in his life. The enormous crocodile’s clever tricks appear to be close to an easy victory , but the animals he disdains will stop him from his evil plans.

Seemingly, the story is Aesopian, for animals are used to give moral lessons to readers regardless of age. Thus, the enormous croc represents all the negative attitudes of a vain person. A vain person can be arrogant, boastful, selfish, inconsiderate, and indifferent.That’s why I take the title of the story figuratively : enormous crocodile. In fact, the word crocodile has now a Filipino connotation for corrupt politicians.Besides, the crocodile puts me in mind of the other greedy characters in books , movies , and animations. Ones that spring to mind are Tom in the classic animation Tom and Jerry and the Hare who ridicules a slow-moving tortoise. (laughs)

Roald Dahl’s signature writing style has stuck in my mind once again. In this story, he put too much stress on words, especially adjectives and words he coined himself, to make the dialogues lively and catchy , I believe . This is his style I found overwhelmingly impressive after reading his Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . The Glass Elevator, and The BFG.. Read these lines that I enjoyed chanting:

“It’s luscious, it’s super,
It’s muschious, it’s duper,
It’s better than rotten old fish.
You mash it and munch it,
You chew it and crunch it!
It’s lovely to hear it go squish!”

One more thing I liked in the book the same as his other books above is the onomatopoeic lines. I loved this part:

“…I will give a jerk and a snap, and after that it will be yum yum yum.”

How about his use of rhyme and rhythm?

” I’m going to fill my hungry empty tummy.

With something yummy yummy yummy yummy! “

So, when you read some lines that are beyond your world, you can check their meanings in The OXFORD ROALD DAHL DICTIONARY.

Sometimes, it occurs to me if his books just the like of this are designed for a literary class because of the big words students can learn , or if he is engaged in any sorts of discourse, he appears to be so pompous that his audience might bring out a dictionary to look up the words he uses.

Another thing I loved about Roald Dahl is his creativity in naming his characters. He coins names that are bizarre but extremely kawaii. His style that may catch the interest of his readers, and I have never found in any writers yet. I may have, but there is no more such thing Dahlism than his very own trademark.

The illustrations Quentin Blake has been known for can even hold your interest more . They are lovely! And this is another reason why I want to collect all Roald Dahl’s books.

I really loved this book.The best part that I liked is the characters name.I liked story ending because the

Love this funny story about The Enormous Crocodile & his secret plans & nasty tricks which he thought would work out. His clever idea to have small children as his lunch is what this book is about. Read to know whether his mission was a success or not..

This is the link to the book http://english4success.ru/Upload/book...

What did I just read?

I don't think I've ever read anything by Roald Dahl that I didn't like. I am thrilled that my soon to be 4 year old daughter is now old enough to hear his stories at bedtime. We started with the Enormous Crocodile because it was short, illustrated, and new to us (the parents). It was a great read-aloud book! Our daughter wanted to know what would happen next and really enjoyed the story of the wicked crocodile on the hunt to eat up small children. A solid introduction to quirky stories and great writing!

Silly and funny story of a crocodile try to eat children

The enormous crocodile is a story written by Roald Dahl. In the biggest muddiest river in Africa lived two crocodiles, where the enormous crocodile is telling smaller crocodile, known as the "Not-So-Big One", that he wants to eat children for his lunch. The small crocodile objects, because children taste "nasty and bitter" in his opinion compared to fish, and because of what happened the last time the big crocodile tried to eat children. The larger crocodile leaves the big, brown muddy river anyway, and announces his intention to Humpy Rumpy the hippopotamus, Trunky the elephant, Muggle-Wump the monkey and the Roly-Poly Bird. The animals insult him and hope that he will fail miserably and will himself be killed and eaten, after which the big crocodile briefly and unsuccessfully attacks Muggle-Wump and the Roly-Poly Bird. First of all, the crocodile heads to a coconut tree forest, not far away from a town and disguises himself as a small coconut tree with branches and coconuts, hoping to eat a pair of children, Toto and Mary, but is exposed by Humpy Rumpy. Later, the crocodile heads to a children's playground located outside an ancient school building and disguises him as a seesaw, with the help of a large piece wood, hoping to eat a whole class of children, but is exposed by Muggle-Wump. Then, the crocodile heads to a funfair and, when nobody is looking, he disguises himself as a wooden crocodile on a merry-go-round by placing himself between a brown lion and a yellow dragon (with a pink-red tongue sticking out of its mouth) hoping to eat a young girl named Jill who wants to ride on him, but is exposed by the Roly-Poly Bird. The crocodile heads to a picnic place just outside the town. When nobody is looking, the crocodile himself picks a bunch of colorful flowers and arranges it on one of the tables before (from exactly the same table), taking away one of the benches and hiding it in the bushes and then disguising himself as a long, wooden four-legged bench, hoping to eat four children who are going out on a picnic, but is exposed by Trunky. Trunky angrily wraps his trunk around the crocodile's tail, hoists him up into the air, and then, after talking to him briefly about having had enough of his clever tricks, he swings him round and round in the air by his tail, slowly and gently to start off with, and then a little faster and then a lot faster and finally very fast indeed. Eventually, Trunky lets the crocodile go, causing the fiend himself to fly through the sky, out of Earth and into space. The big crocodile whizzes past the Moon, past some stars and past all the other planets, including Mars, before finally crashing headlong into the Sun at the middle of the Solar System where he is incinerated like a sausage.

It started off when the Enormous Crocodile wanted to have a feast of children. The Notsobig crocodile though that was a evil plan and kept on eating fish. On the way the Enormous Crocodile met a few other animals on the way including the Roly Poly Bird, and Muggle Wump. When the Enormous Crocodile finally got to the little children he tried different ways to eat the children and all got spoiled by the animals he met on the way. Overall it was a great book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Enormous Crocodile, Roald Dahl

The Enormous Crocodile is a 1978 children's story, written by Roald Dahl.

The story begins in Africa in a large, deep, muddy river, where the enormous crocodile (the title character) is telling a smaller crocodile, known as the Not-So-Big One, that he wants to eat children for his lunch.

The small crocodile objects, because children taste "nasty and bitter" in his opinion compared to fish, and because of what happened the last time the big crocodile tried to eat children. The larger crocodile leaves the big, brown muddy river anyway, and announces his intention to Humpy Rumpy the hippopotamus, Trunky the elephant, Muggle-Wump the monkey and the Roly-Poly Bird.

The animals insult him and hope that he will fail miserably and will himself be killed and eaten, after which the big crocodile briefly and unsuccessfully attacks Muggle-Wump and the Roly-Poly Bird.

First of all, the crocodile heads to a coconut tree forest, not far away from a town and disguises himself as a small coconut tree with branches and coconuts, hoping to eat a pair of children, Toto and Mary, but is exposed by Humpy Rumpy.

Next, the crocodile heads to a children's playground located outside an ancient school building and disguises himself as a see-saw, with the help of a large piece wood, hoping to eat a whole class of children, but is exposed by Muggle-Wump.

Then, the crocodile heads to a funfair and, when nobody is looking, he disguises himself as a wooden crocodile on a merry-go-round by sandwiching himself between a brown lion and a yellow dragon (with a pink-red tongue sticking out of its mouth) hoping to eat a young girl named Jill who wants to ride on him, but is exposed by the Roly-Poly Bird.

Last of all, the crocodile heads to a picnic place just outside the town. When nobody is looking, the crocodile himself picks a bunch of colorful flowers and arranges it on one of the tables before (from exactly the same table,) taking away one of the benches and hiding it in the bushes and then disguising himself as a long, wooden four-legged bench, hoping to eat four children who are going out on a picnic, but is exposed by Trunky. ...

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز چهاردهم ماه آگوست سال 2004 میلادی

عنوان: تمساح غول پیکر؛ نویسنده: رولد دال؛ مترجم محبوبه نجف‌خانی؛ تهران، نشر افق؛ 1382؛ چاپ سیزدهم 1397؛ در 64ص؛ شابک 9789643690830؛ موضوع: داستانهای کودکان از نویسندگان بریتانیایی - سده 20م

عنوان: تمساح غول پیکر؛ نویسنده: رولد دال مترجم: فرشته توانگر؛ ناشر: نشر مرکز؛ 1385؛ در 32ص؛

مترجمین دیگری نیز این کتاب را ترجمه کرده اند

هیچ وقت سیر نمیشم، مگر این که سه تا بچه آبدار رو درسته قورت بدم! تمساح غول پیکر شکموترین جانور در سر تا سر جنگل است که عاشق خوردن بچه‌هاست! او از آن خالی بندهای نابکار است که خیال می‌کند با نقشه های پنهانی و کلک‌های زیرکانه‌ اش، راست راستی هوش سرشاری دارد؛ اما او به اندازه ی دیگر حیوانات جنگل، باهوش نیست؛ آن‌ها تصمیم دارند کلک‌های او را نقش بر آب کنند و به او درسی بدهند که هیچ وقت از یادش نرود؛ به گفته خود نویسنده، تمساح غول پیکر، بهترین داستانی است که او برای بچه‌ ها نوشته است

نقل از متن: (در بزرگترین و گل آلودترین رودخانه ی آفریقا، دو تمساح سرهای شان را از آب بیرون آورده بودند؛ یکی از آن دو غول پیکر بود؛ امّا آن یکی زیاد بزرگ نبود؛ تمساح غول پیکر پرسید: «میدانی امروز دلم میخواهد ناهار چی بخورم؟»؛ آن یکی که زیاد بزرگ نبود، گفت: «نه؛ دلت میخواهد چی بخوری؟»؛ تمساح غول پیکر خندید و با این کار صدها دندان سفید و تیزش را نشان داد و گفت: «برای ناهار امروز، دلم میخواهد یک بچّه ی چرب و چیلی و آبدار بخورم.»؛ آن یکی که زیاد بزرگ نبود، گفت: «من هیچ وقت بچّه ها را نمیخورم؛ من فقط ماهی میخورم.»؛

تمساح غول پیکر فریاد: «هه هه هه! مطمئنم اگر همین الان یک بچّه ی چاق و چلّه آن طرف رودخانه شنا میکرد، میپریدی و یک لقمه ی چپش میکردی!»؛ آن که زیاد بزرگ نبود، گفت: «نه، این کار را نمیکردم؛ گوشت بچّه ها مثل سنگ سفت است؛ بچّه ها تلخ و بدمزه اند.»؛ تمساح غول پیکر گفت: «مثل سنگ سفت است! تلخ و بدمزه اند! چه قدر چرند میگویی! آنها خیلی هم چرب و نرم و خوشمزه اند!»؛ آن یکی که زیاد بزرگ نبود، گفت: «تلخ و بدمزه اند؛ باید رویشان شکر پاشید تا از گلو بروند پایین.»؛ تمساح غول پیکر گفت: «بچّه ها از ماهیها بزرگترند؛ یک پرس غذای بیشتر گیرت میآید.»؛

آن یکی که زیاد بزرگ نبود، گفت: « تو خیلی شکمویی. تو شکموترین تمساح این رودخانه ای.»؛ تمساح غول پیکر گفت: «من شجاعترین تمساح این رودخانه ام؛ من تنها تمساحی هستم که جرئت میکند پایش را از رودخانه بگذارد بیرون و از توی جنگل برود به شهر و دنبال بچّه ها بگردد و آنها را بخورد.»؛ آن یکی که زیاد بزرگ نبود، گفت: «یکبار اینکار را کرده ای؛ امّا نتیجه اش چه شد؟ بچّه ها با دیدنت پا گذاشتند به فرار.»؛ تمساح غول پیکر گفت: «آه، امّا امروز که بروم، اصلاً مرا نمی بینند.»)؛ پایان نقل

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 16/04/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Had half an hour before a meeting so fit in a quick wee audiobook. Fun story and to be honest, Stephen Fry could read the back of a cereal box and I would listen....

I love Roald Dahl
His imagination is just out of this world!

“It’s luscious, it’s super,
It’s muschious, it’s duper,
It’s better than rotten old fish.
You mash it and munch it,
You chew it and crunch it!
It’s lovely to hear it go squish!”


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The Enormous Crocodile is on a mission… to find some children to munch. He tells all of his jungle friends his plans and they think he’s an awful mean crocodile so they’re constantly thwarting his plans of munching. The Enormous Crocodile gets more and more frustrated as he gets more and more hungry.
Warning: No children were actually eaten in this book.

So, I’ve been on a Roald Dahl kick lately so one random Saturday morning I decided I wanted to read it. It’s definitely not my favorite of his that I’ve read so far, but it was still funny and the pictures were enjoyable. Not much more to say, it’s cute, it’s fun, read it.