When Mouse, Rabbit and Shelly the Tortoise spot the sun going down they realise they need to get home quickly before it gets dark. Mouse suggests taking a shortcut through the creepy crooked creek but Rabbit isn’t sure. What if the tales of hungry crocodiles are true? Mouse is adamant that he has never seen a crocodile there so they all set off together.
It soon transpires that Shelly doesn’t even know what a crocodile is, so Mouse decides to educate him along the way. To reassure his friends, he repeats many times that he has definitely never ever seen a crocodile in the creepy crooked creek – but Rabbit and Shelly start to spot evidence to the contrary.
Here, the brilliant illustrations come in to their own as they start to diverge from the story which Mouse is telling. Just like Rabbit and Shelly, we can see that there are in fact crocodiles EVERYWHERE! The bridge they walk over is a crocodile’s back, the scratchy thorns are pointy claws and the vines they swing on are crocodiles tails – but Mouse just doesn’t seem to see it!
They survive the creek and enter a cave, or do they? Those stalagmites look an awful lot like teeth…
This is a really clever story which has led to many giggles in our house. The first time we read it, Ivy didn’t spot what was happening with the pictures until we neared the end and she saw the sharp teeth. She then made me go back to the beginning and re-read it (many times!) so she could look for all the other signs of crocodile activity!
Buy it now: https://amzn.to/2NbtvQC
Disclosure: The publisher provided us with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.