Please Feed the Alligator! AAAlligator! by Judith Henderson

In the middle of a great forest, just outside town, there lived a boy in a red house next to a hidden lake. The lake was just big enough for one medium-sized whale.

On one of his walks he came upon something that stopped him in his tracks!

AAALLIGATOR!

The alligator seemed to be stuck in some twisted vines. The boy wanted to help--without being eaten in the process. So he tossed the alligator his lunch. The alligator swallowed it, but he still looked hungry, so the boy ran home and packed a bag with everything he could find in the refrigerator.

ARUGULA, LASAGNA, BROCCOLI, ONIONS...

The alligator downed it all...-except for the onions--and even ate the bag. He yawned and looked as if he needed a nap to digest the food, so the boy improvised an original alligator lullaby:

Alligator, go to sleep.

People are not good to eat.

When you wake, you will be free.

Please, please, do not eat me.

While the 'gator snoozes, the boy cuts him loose with his pocketknife, and runs all the way home, faster than an alligator, he hopes.

But during the night he is wakened by noises outside his window. And there is the alligator, looking lonely. The boy tosses him a stuffed animal and they both sleep quietly for the rest of the night.

In the morning, the alligator seems quite tame, and he and the boy become fast friends. And one day the boy decides to take the alligator downtown for a look around. Naturally, the townspeople are more than a bit upset and flee as fast as they can. The Mayor issues a proclamation on the spot:

NO ALLIGATORS

 (Blah blah blah)

But some of the townspeople are sympathetic, and when they learn that the alligator will eat anything (but onions), they come up with a brilliant adjunct plan for their over-burdened recycling system. Talk about your natural solutions to waste disposal! Everyone begins to bring their kitchen leftovers over every night for the alligator, enjoying the evening walks and chats together, and everyone was happy--the boy, the alligator, the townspeople--everyone except the Mayor....

But no one cares about the Mayor!

In her fanciful story about a boy and his alligator, AAAlligator! (Kids Can Press, 2020) pokes a little fun at self-important local authorities, and a large, lost reptile finds a home, friends, and a job to boot, with a reminder that newcomers may turn out to have some needed abilities. With illustrator Andrea Stegmaier's jolly illustrations, this one joins the many popular fanciful stories of alligators for the picture book fancier, such as If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don't! (Magnolia Says DON'T!, 1) (See my review here).

Corps de Ballet? Dance Is For Everyone by Andrea Zuill

Mrs. Iraina and her ballerinas were surprised.

There was a new student in their dance class

They decided it was okay for her to join.

Besides, who would be brave enough to tell a 450-pound alligator she couldn't?

The big green 'gator seems to be able to follow all the moves, so Mrs. Iraina carries on with class, making a mental note to stock up on alligator snacks to keep her little dancers safe. They name the alligator Tanya.

There was one hazard, though.

Tanya didn't seem to know what was going on with her tail!

Ballet teachers have to be creative with the dancers they have, and for their recital Mrs. Iraina and her little ballerinas come up with a novel production with a setting which is, er, suited to Tanya's talents--"The Legend of the Swamp Queen," with the kids in animal outfits and you-know-who dancing the title role!

The audience is enthralled with the star ballerina--so strong and so fully immersed in her role!

And what an unbelievably realistic costume!

It's a hit, in Andrea Zuill's Dance Is for Everyone (Sterling Books, 2017). There are plenty of giggles as the little dancers gawk at their big green classmate and try not to trip on her tail, and author-illustrator Zuill provides plenty of sight gags as Tanya trips the not-so-light fantastic to extend the humor of this tale. Says School Library Journal, "The illustrations are quirky and the plot is engaging, with jokes adults will appreciate peppered throughout. The narrative coveys the story's message of inclusion in a subtle manner, but the book's title makes this important theme abundantly clear."

For a further taste of Zuill's comic picture book talents, see her delightful walk on the wild side with a trio of pampered pooches, in Wolf Camp (read review here).

Not MY Job! Snappsy the Alligator (Did Not Ask To Be in This Book!) by Julia Falatko

SNAPPSY THE ALLIGATOR WASN'T FEELING LIKE HIMSELF.

HIS SKIN FELT BAGGY. HIS TAIL DIDN'T SWITCH THIS WAY AND THAT.

AND WORST OF ALL, HIS BIG JAW DIDN'T SNAP.

Snappsy heads out to do some routine shopping at the local grocery store. But the unseen hand of the Rude Narrator has other ideas.

Snappsy the big mean alligator looked for food. He liked to eat tiny defenseless birds and soft fuzzy bunnies!"

Hey! Snappsy protests the Narrator's story line.

"IT'S JUST A STORE! A GROCERY STORE! IT'S WHERE I BUY FOOD!"

So the rude narrator alters the story line to fit the setting.

"He loads his cart with pudding, peanut butter, pita bread, and popcorn.

(Snappsy the Alligator was particularly fond of certain letters in the alphabet.")

Snappy protests that the Narrator is way out of line and is clearly in cahoots with the illustrator, who persists in portraying inaccuracies. But the Narrator perseveres in his plot. He describes how Snappsy heads home to his splintery shack and throws himself into party preparations, aimed at improving his reputation. Snappsy objects to this whole story line.

"YOU KNOW WHAT? I DID NOT ASK TO BE IN THIS BOOK!"

But in Julia Falatko's new Snappsy the Alligator (Did Not Ask to Be in This Book) (Viking Books, 2016), poor Snappsy discovers that in the popular genre of meta-fiction, the poor protagonist has little recourse but to accept his fate, and in this case Snappsy finally casts his fate to the winds and enjoys playing the host with the most as best he can. Falatko's witty back-and-forth banter between the meta-narrator and his hapless hero is a lot of fun for young readers, who may like having a look through that fourth wall to see how fiction gets done. Artist Tim Miller's comic drawings of quirky critters gives this one plenty of visual humor for the savvy consumer of picture books. "More than merely meta, Snappsy is clearly a book, if not a protagonist, with bite," puns Kirkus.

And if kids ask for more, pair this one with Mo Willem's masterful meta-movie spoof, That Is Not a Good Idea! (see review here).