Professional Crocodile

The story of this wordless picturebook begins with the main character, a crocodile, asleep in a city apartment dreaming of basking in a tropical pool. The alarm clock rings and a familiar morning routine follows, as the crocodile decides which tie to wear, eats breakfast and leaves for work. We follow him on his commute in the busy city, splashed by a passing car and squashed on a crowded tube train.  He greets familiar faces and buys a roast chicken lunch and a bunch of flowers, mysteriously delivered later to a lady at a window. We arrive in a park and find ourselves entering a zoo through the monkey enclosure. The crocodile is revealed undressing and approaching a pool. Opening the final spread, we discover his job is to swim in the pool and entertain the zoo’s visitors. Truly a professional crocodile. This is an engaging narrative with a clever ending effectively told through a very well-designed sequence of detailed watercolour images. Movement is effectively conveyed through a series of images as the crocodile descends in the lift and with a blur of speed as he rushes through the city streets. Once the reason for the title has been discovered, readers will want to go back again and spot all the other animals on their way to work too, and wonder if they are also heading for the zoo. The image of the monkey enclosure also requires a closer examination, with one reading a book, one looking at his watch and another on a mobile… is the suggestion that the life of a zoo animal is boring perhaps? There is definitely lots to think and talk about in this excellent picturebook.