posted on 21 Jul 2016

The Crocodile Blues by Coleman Polhemus

I love books that take chances and this one takes plenty. Let's start with the story - a man goes out to buy some eggs, he puts them in the frdige and in the night one hatches. However, it's not a chick he finds in his fridge but a crocodile that chases him from his house..........I'll stop there so you can find out how it ends for yourself.

It's an delightfully quirky tale and it's told without words.Picture books for young children that don't have words are reasonably common but finding them for older children is unusual in my experience. These books are all about the pictures and these are really striking and have a odd retro feel to them that made me think of those old Canadian or East European cartoons that you might have found squeezed into the television schedules on a Sunday afternoon ( does anyone else remember Foo Foo and Mimi?). It also takes a lot of risks with the colour scheme - blocks of white, black, blue and yellow. The book is also cunningly constructed to have pages that fold out on themselves to construct buildings that are two or three times the normal size of the book.

I really have no idea whether this book would really appeal to children - I have the sneaking suspicion that this was really put together for the delight of adults and parents who want their children to be creative in the way they engage with books. Whatever the target audience, I love it and I hope the attached pictures give you a sense of what a treat it is.

There are plenty of copies available on the internet for a few pounds and so you wont have any problems finding yourself one that's in good condition. Enjoy!

 

Terry Potter

July 2016