CROCODILE AND HEN

by Joan M. Lexau ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 5, 1969

Every time Crocodile opens his mouth wide to eat Hen, she calls him brother. ""Crocodile shut his mouth--SNAP. He could not eat Hen. He just could not do it."" But: ""How can I be Hen's brother?"" Day after day Hen's complacency and Crocodile's befuddlement grow (along with a list of reasons why he can't be her brother) until, setting out to ask the Wise Old Woman, he is accosted by Lizard who looks around and reasons that ""hens lay eggs and ducks lay eggs and turtles lay eggs and lizards lay eggs and--crocodiles lay eggs. . . . And in this way we are brothers."" It's a snappy cumulative tale from Bakongo rendered in rakish American (""Drat,"" says Crocodile to Lizard's logic, and ""How nice to eat you. Oops, I mean meet you,"" to Hen the next day) and drawn with relish for the Unflappable Hen and the discombobulated Croc. No one's attention will wander from their cleverly staged contest.

Pub Date: Nov. 5, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1969

Categories: CHILDREN'S