An alligator takes interest in shoes, and spends the night locked in a shoe store where he enjoys trying on the merchandise.
Reviews
"It's funny immediately."–The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"Dorros [has] a genuine, offhand comic talent."–Kirkus Reviews
"In this zany story, the surprise ending carries an artfully-hidden message." –The Weekly Washington
Awards & Honors
- A Reading Rainbow selection
Author's note: the story behind the story
When I was four and a half years old, my family took one of our first long trips. We drove down the east coast to Florida. Somewhere along the way, we passed an alligator farm. My parents thought I would like to have my picture taken with the alligators. You can see the look on my face as I noticed what big teeth they (the alligators) had. I didn’t particularly like way they were smiling. I thought they might make me their lunch, or at least dessert. Fortunately they had just eaten.
Years later, I wondered about “alligator bags” and “alligator shoes,” and decided to write a story not about a boy in the alligators’ world as I had been, but about an alligator in the world of humans. Strangely, I once got locked in the front of a store-after I had written this book. But that’s another story..
My parents were generally very thoughtful about keeping me safe. This seemed to be one of their few lapses of judgment in that regard.
DO NOT MESS WITH ALLIGATORS. DO NOT MESS WITH ANYTHING THAT HAS BIG TEETH!