The enormous crocodile. One of the story written by the famous writer Roald Dahl. This is a story about an enormous crocodile, who is really hungry and greedy. He was having some clever trick to eat children but every time the children was saved by some animals who he met on the way, THANK GOD!!!.

This was another book that my 4 year old grandson brought me to read him. The enormous crocodile has some clever tricks in mind to help him catch juicy children for a meal. How he is thwarted is a lovely story of good battling evil. While I was reading this my 6 year old grand-daughter came to listen in too. Both of them enjoyed the book but the potential is there that it might be scary for little ones.

Illustrations help with the story, beyond about second grade most kids will be consider it babyish.

It was a good read. The enormous croc was very greedy, the story talks about how he kept getting greedier and how badly he behaved with other animals in the forest. And finally he learnt his lesson at the end.

2023 - 1970’s Immersion Reading Challenge

The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl (1978) 30 pages.

AR POINTS 0.5 READING LEVEL 4.0

I was drawn to the cover, which is super cute. But, the pages are extremely long and wordy, which might be a little daunting for some young readers. I felt the author should have added more pages with the cute artwork, using less words per page.

Although, a little predictable, the story is cute. It kind of reminds me of a little toddler board book I own, Alex Alligator and His Fearsome Jaws” (1997) put out by Reader’s Digest Children’s Books. It has a crocodile on top that you can snap open as you read it. I’ve had it for years and have read to all my 10 grandies. They, of course, get to do the snapping. They loved it. This story style is very similar…just a lot longer with different storyline and ending.

Whereas, Alex Alligator is trying to make friends with each animal, the enormous crocodile is trying to trick kids so he can eat them. The different animals that enormous alligator runs into end up saving the kids.

Alex Alligator does become friends with all the animals by NOT snap, snap, snapping his jaws at them. Roald Dahl’s enormous alligator is finished in the end. He is thrown into the hot, hot sun by Trunky the Elephant, where he is sizzled up.

رمان قشنگ و بامزه‌ایه
گزینه مناسبیه برای هدیه دادن.
نه چیزی کم داره نه چیزی اضافه. اینقد کاراکتر منفیش همین کروکودیله بانمکه که آدم تا آخر داستان مجذوب میمونه

Lucu juga buku ini, beneran deh kalo udah sok pintar, nih buaya malah gagal semua itu rencananya...karena lapar dan ingin makan kenyang ( dengan sasaran tiga anak kecil ). Maka pergilah si Buaya Raksasa ini dengan melintasi hutan hingga sampai ke kota yang memang banyak anak-anak. Dan ia pun menjalankan rencana-rencananya.

Rencana pertama adalah dengan berpura-pura menjadi pohon kelapa, berdiri dengan ekornya, terus kaki depan memegang buah kelapa dan mulutnya penuh dengan dahan kelapa yang berhasil diambilnya...demi untuk menjebak anak-anak kecil yang memang sangat tertarik melihat pohon kelapa yang aneh, tapi rencananya yang ini digagalkan oleh teman Kudanilnya si Humpy-Rumpy yang menabraknya hingga jatuh, maka berlarian kaburlah anak-anak kecil tersebut.

Rencana kedua adalah berpura-pura menjadi jungkat-jungkit disebuah taman bermain dengan meletakkan tubuhnya melintang pada sebuah batang pohon. Maka saat anak-anak berdatangan untuk bermain, tertariklah mereka untuk bermain jungkat-jungkit tersebut, wah sudah merasa penyamarannya berhasil si Buaya dikejutkan dengan kedatangan si kera Muggle-Wump yang berseru pada anak-anak untuk berlari karena itu bukan jungkat-jangkit, itu adalah buaya raksasa.

Rencana ketiga adalah sampainya si Buaya Raksasa di suatu pasar malam, maka dia menyamar menjadi salah satu binatang di sebuah Komedi putar. Dan seorang anak kecil bernama Jill sangat tertarik menaiki komedi putar yang berbentuk buaya tersebut, tapi saat hendak manaikinya datanglah Burung Roly-Poly yang berteriak pada Jill untuk tidak naik ke buaya karena itu buaya betulan. Langsung seluruh pengunjung pasar malam tersebut bubar jalan lari tunggang langgang meninggalkan si Buaya Raksasa sendirian yang kelaparan.

Taktik Cerdik nomer empat adalah menyelinap ke tempat piknik dengan menekuk kepala ke arah dada, dan menekuk ekornya agar tak terlihat ia membuat dirinya tampak persis seperti bangku panjang disebuah tempat piknik. Datanglah dua anak laki-laki dan dua anak perempuan membawa sekeranjang makanan dan tertarik untuk duduk dibangku panjang yang berbentuk buaya. Tapi lagi-lagi tak disangka oleh si Buaya Raksasa datang si Gajah Trunky menyuruh anak-anak untuk mundur dan dengan belalainya ia melilit ekor buaya Raksasa dan memutar-mutar dengan sangat kencang kemudian dilemparnya buaya itu melesat ke angkasa seperti roket hijau makin tinggi dan tinggi dan akhirnya si Buaya meledak di angkasa.

Gagal maning-gagal maning....kasihan juga ni Si Buaya Raksasa ni, kelaparannya berakhir dengan ledakan dirinya di angkasa.

Nah kalo yang ini muluk-muluk banget, berlebihan tapi lucu, yah lumayan bikin tersenyumlah. Lagi-lagi Roald Dahl sangat canggih dalam memberi nama tokoh-tokohnya seperti si Gajah Trunky, Si Burung Roly-Poly, si Kera Muggle-Wump dan si Kudalil Humpy-Rumpy, aku suka itu.

Lumayan lah buat selingan baca euy....hehehehe.

The enormous crocodile decides to have a human child for lunch and sets out for the village to pull tricks on the children so he can catch one to eat. As he makes his way there he brags to the other animals in the jungle about his plan. All of them are suitably horrified and come to the aid of the children as crocodile tries one tricky disguise after another. He is very clever, but the rest of the animals are determined to foil his plans. Great illustrations!

He's a rather large crocodile that likes to eat children so concocts elaborate plans to ensnare them. Except because he's not very nice to the other animals in the jungle, they're always there to thwart his plans. I mean, it does exactly what it sets out to do. Also, shout out to the Twits crossover.

رولد دال از کودکی، نویسنده‌ی‌ محبوبم بوده. الان بعد از چند سال، خوندنِ دوباره‌اش (و اولین مواجهه‌ام باهاش بدون واسطه‌ی ترجمه)، حسابی سر کیفم اورد. این مرد، همیشه حیرتم رو نسبت به خودش برمی‌انگیزه؛ از بس که خلاقه! یعنی هردفعه با خودم می‌گم خدااایی چطور اینا به ذهنت می‌رسههه؟ اونم این همه با جزئیات ریز و فراموش‌نشدنی. واقعاً دوستش دارم، هم خودش رو، هم ایده‌های سمّی و جذابش رو! (البته ایده‌ی کلی این کتاب و خط داستانی‌اش، اونقدرا سمّی و خاص نبود -مثلاً به اندازه‌ی ایده‌ی کتابی مثل جادوگرها یا انگشت جادویی- اما باز هم، خصوصاً توی پرداخت جزئیات، نسبتاً خلاقانه بود؛ مثلاً جاهایی که تمساحه قایم می‌شد، خیلی بامزه بودن برام.)

An Extended Diary Entry for a Picture Book

The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl is a picture book about a crocodile who really wants to eat a child. The rest of the jungle characters that he meets on the way try hard to stop him.

Characters
The main character is the enormous crocodile. There is also a Notsobig Crocodile and a few animals he meets on his journey, who are; Humpy-Rumpy the Hippopotamus, Trunky the Elephant, Muggle-Wump the Monkey, the Roly-Poly Bird. There are also a few children; Toto, Mary, an older girl, Jill and a family of children.

Plot
The Enormous Crocodile is very hungry to eat children. He sets of through the jungle to find a child to eat. He meets a few animals on the way and once he tells them what he is going to do, they are horrified and the enormous crocodile tries to attack them. He wonders on and as he meets children he creates plans to trick the children, so he can get close to them and eat them. However, the animals he met along the way have been watching him and they ruin all his plans one-by-one.

Language
The language is very repetitive, as a lot of phrases are repeated or slightly changed throughout. A good example that children can follow along easily, even though there are many words for a picture book. It has a lot of speech within the text.

How is it told?
The story is told through a lot of speech, showing the story through the characters. It is told through pictures as well, because the pictures show how the crocodile is doing his tricks. There is a lot of repetition throughout the story with the different characters. This helps younger children to follow along with the text.

Picture layout
There is a lot of text for a picture book, so the pictures have to fit around the words. The pictures correlate well with the text and show the reader exactly what is happening. It gives children the vision of what the text is saying. The words and pictures flow really well, they are not out of place. There is often just writing in the sky or on the ground, where the writing doesn't disturb the picture too much.

Experiences needed to access the text
Children might need experience with animals to understand the animals in the text. For example; that crocodile how dangerous crocodiles can be, how big an elephant can be, that these types of animals live in a jungle, in different areas.

Book codes
The book uses a few book codes well to tell the story. The illustrator uses curvy lines for the images which show a relaxed setting and characters. However, the sharp edges of the crocodile are specific to show how harsh they are, making the character meaner and nastier. There are a few aspects of framing used in the story to show more on a page, for example, when the crocodile is getting the picnic area ready, there are 3 images instead of 2, moving the story forward. The story is mainly all from the perspective of the reader, there are no changes for example, seeing through the crocodiles' eyes, it just shows the characters and the situation as it is.

Links to learning
This book could be linked to learning about animals and their habitats, because we see the monkey living in the tree and the crocodile in the river.

Shared/guided reading activities
The book is a bit too long and small for it to be read aloud to the class, so I would recommend it be used for guided reading or shared reading. With shared reading, each child would need to be able to see the text more clearly so having their own copy or being able to see a big version is needed. Questions can be asked including; ‘would you notice the crocodile?’ ‘How would you trick the crocodile?’ ‘How would you feel if you saw a crocodile in the playground?’. Guided reading would be the best option, because it would allow a teacher to go into more detail in the book and read it more carefully with a smaller group of children, as there is a lot of text to go through. It would be best to go through the language used and how to tell a story.

My middle daughter recommended I read this book, and I can see why. The jumble of entertaining adjectives makes this great fun for an imaginative 7-year-old – and a less imaginative 35-year-old. The end was a little abrupt, but overall this is classic Dahl: fun, witty and a little dangerous.