Product Description

Poor Monkey. All she has to eat are sour lemons. One day she spies a banana tree on a faraway island, but the only way to get there is to navigate the crocodile-infested waters of the Sillabobble Sea. That's no problem when you're a brave and clever monkey who can count to ten and back!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #95574 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .12" h x 11.05" w x 8.91" l, .43 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 40 pages

From Amazon.com
Counting Crocodiles may feel familiar to you, perhaps due to its folktale roots, maybe because Will Hillenbrand's artwork is so marvelously, comically, stylistically perfect, or perhaps because the delightful rhyme is so much like that of Lewis Carroll or Edward Lear. Here's a sample: "On an island in the middle of the Sillabobble Sea / lived a clever little monkey in a sour lemon tree. / She ate lemons boiled and fried, / steamed, sauteed, pureed, and dried. / She ate lemons till she cried, / 'I'm all puckered up inside!'" Meanwhile, Hillenbrand's full-page illustrations provide unending delights. In the first, most lemony of spreads, the snail is holding a whole lemon in her mouth, the fox has a glass of lemonade, and the lemon tree is laden with a blender, juicer, rolling pin, peeler, spatulas, and pans. The monkey looks suitably soured by the whole state of affairs.

On the second page, the monkey spies a banana tree on a similarly deserted island. Of course, she craves a few of these fine fruits. And she wonders aloud how many crocodiles there might be in the Sillabobble Sea. One crusty croc emerges to imply slyly that there are so many crocs that she could easily walk on their backs to the banana island, and invites her to count them. She counts them: "... one crocodile with a great big smile, / Two crocs resting on rocks, / Three crocs rocking in a box, / Four crocs building with blocks," and so on, until she counts "Ten crocs dressed like Goldilocks." Impatiently, the rascally reptiles ask her how many of them there are, she stalls, she counts them again, and lo and behold! in all the splashing and cavorting, the monkey (with the help of the fox and the snail) gets her bananas! This is one of the most delightful picture books around! (Ages 4 to 8)

From Publishers Weekly
How Monkey gets from his small island to a faraway island where a banana tree grows may be a familiar dilemma but, as PW wrote in a starred review, "Author and artist, working with traditional materials, arrive at an altogether fresh presentation." Ages 3-7.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 1. "On an island in the middle of the Sillabobble Sea lived a clever little monkey in a sour lemon tree." The monkey eats lemons every way possible, but yearns to reach a distant island on which sweet bananas grow. Between the two islands is the sea?and interspersed in the crests of the waves are the yellow eyeballs of many, many crocodiles. When the monkey wonders aloud whether there are more crocodiles in the sea or monkeys on the shore, the crocs line up to be counted, providing access to the tasty fruit. Based on a Pan-Asian folktale, Sierra's rhyming verse is perfectly complemented by Hillenbrand's cleverly detailed illustrations executed in oil, oil pastel, watercolor, and gouache on vellum. The full-page spreads carry well for group sharing, while the rhyming verse incorporates rhythm changes in the most delectable manner, creating a book that is meant to be read aloud. The youngest listeners will be able to join in on the counting while older ones will appreciate the illustrator's visual jokes. While Paul Galdone's Monkey and the Crocodile (Clarion, 1979) remains a beloved standard, Hillenbrand's vivid colors and Sierra's rich, descriptive text ensure that readers and listeners alike will delight in Counting Crocodiles.?Lisa Falk, Palos Verdes Library, CA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.