Watch Out for the Crocodile

PreS-Gr 2—Tora thinks all her father does is "work, drink coffee, sit at the computer, and talk on his cell phone," so she's especially excited when he announces a camping trip in the forest, even though she has to endure a shopping trip for supplies and a long car ride to get there. Contrary to her expectations, though, the forest proves to be a pretty dull place with no animals in sight—until Tora begins to see the environment through the eyes of her imagination. While her father walks through the woods, cell phone in hand, Tora sees a tree root as a dangerous snake, tree limbs as giraffes, an object in the grass as a crouching lion, and a collection of boulders as "sunbathing hippopotamuses." She even turns tree stumps into troll playmates. Finally, dad joins in the fun, yelping as Tora "saves" him from a log turned into a flesh-eating crocodile and convincing her that a tree-lined island is a "water dragon, asleep in the lake." Eriksson's large, mixed-media illustrations shift seamlessly from a predominantly green forest setting to the soft yellow African plains where several of Tora's imaginary animals dwell. Father and daughter appear as cartoon figures sporting a variety of facial expressions. Pair this with Mo Willems's I'm a Frog (Hyperion, 2013) to encourage youngsters to see themselves and their environment in a new light.—Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT