The Brand New Creature

Deciding that ""a crocodile would be much more fun to play with"" than the chicken and the cat in her yard, the young narrator of this tale from a British team goes in search of one. However, she has ""never seen a crocodile, nor any other wild creature."" Thus a predictable sequence of encounters is set in motion, in which the girl asks various animals, ""Excuse me, but are you a crocodile?"" and finally finds one, newly hatched (neither she nor the creature know what it is, however). The most child-pleasing aspect of the story is what the author playfully omits: while each critter explains to the child how it differs from a crocodile, it never identifies itself (a snake tells the girl, ""a crocodile cannot slither and slide as smoothly as I can""), leaving readers to supply the missing moniker. However, while the snake's clues may define its species, other animals' hints offer little help (e.g., the wild boar replies, ""A crocodile is not as ugly as I am""). Hand-crafted paper gives the book's brightly colored, childlike paintings an appealing texture, but the sometimes hazy, unfocused images do little to clarify the characteristics of the more challenging creatures. Ages 5-8. (Dec.)