The enormous crocodile

First published as a picture book, [cf2]The Enormous Crocodile[cf1] was the first work to marry the deliciously dark humor of Roald Dahl with the light touch of Quentin Blake's expressive illustrations. Reproduced in a twenty-first anniversary storybook edition (more pages, smaller trim size), some of the pictures have been enlarged, appearing somewhat blurry and washed-out. From HORN BOOK Spring 2001, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

I'm going to fill my hungry empty tummy/ With something yummy yummy yummy yummy!, So boasts the Enormous Crocodile, setting out in search of juicy little children to eat. But the crocodile makes the mistake of announcing his ""secret plans and clever tricks"" to Humpy-Rumpy the Hippopotamus, Trunky the Elephant, Muggle-Wump the Monkey, and the Roly-Poly Bird--all of whom denounce him as ""a horrid, greedy, grumptious brute,"" ""a foul and filthy fiend,"" and the like. And so, each time that the Enormous Crocodile seems about to succeed with his scheme, one of the other animals bursts in and warns the children away. It's an uninspired plot, right up to the typically Dahl retribution--Trunky sends the croc flying through the air until he crashes into the hot hot sun and is ""sizzled up like a sausage."" It's also played out with typical Dahl gusto, which Blake makes a good show of enjoying--his crocodile's clever disguises are devilish fun. In all, a basic, teeth-baring rendition of the old yum-yum-squish-crunch number. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.