Two Tough Crocs by David Bedford (review)

Crocodiles Sylvester and Arnold each feel like they run the swamp, gnashing their teeth and intimidating the smaller animals. When they finally meet, they try to scare each other—until an even more enormous crocodile, Betty the Bad, boots them right into a muddy pit. The frightened pair decide to sneak off to a safer swamp together under the guise of night, and when Betty spots them and mistakes them for a two-headed, two-tailed, many-toothed monster, she panics and winds up in the swampy hole herself. A reformed Sylvester generously offers a helping hand, and the three have learned their lesson about being mean. Grainy and mottled panels of swampy colors fill roughly textured but detailed outlines in this Australian import, and there’s a pleasing rhythm in the layout, which varies between spreads and spot art. The crocodiles similarly blend silly and scary with their seriously sharp claws but bug-eyed expressions and approachable outfits, and the terrorized marsupials are adorable with boxy builds and simple expressions. There’s a gleeful compactness in the setup (“Sylvester was a big, tough croc. So was Arnold”) and the story is pleasingly humorous. Although the foes-to-friends transformation is a bit abrupt, young audiences might find Betty’s comeuppance and subsequent forgiveness appealing; this could be an empathetic pairing with Pizzoli’s The Watermelon Seed (BCCB 6/13) or another croc-focused picture book for a wonderfully reptilian storytime.