In this notable Italian picturebook, beautiful watercolour illustrations reveal a day in the life of a professional crocodile. Young people between the ages of 12-15 years old will find much to discuss after considering this ambiguous and surprisingly philosophical tale. The eponymous crocodile has apparently the same routine as many professional humans: wake up, take a shower, eat breakfast, go shopping, and stand on a crowded city train. The point of the tale becomes clear when the time comes for the crocodile to go to work – in a zoo. The crocodile undresses, changing from his smart winter attire until he is as naked as a crocodile in the wild. The final spreads of the picturebook depict the crocodile as he is seen by visitors to the zoo – a dangerous animal in captivity, a symbol of the unknown and the wild, rather than the commonplace and the domestic. This twist asks the reader to question the role that each of us plays in our community. Kurt Vonnegut’s (1962) famous quote comes to mind: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
