Kanako Usui

Mr Wani is a nice crocodile (as opposed to the more snappy and horrid crocodiles portrayed in kids books) who is late for a party and gets into lots of crazy mishaps trying to race there. Along the way though he makes lots of friends who also happen to be going to the party. Any book that has penguins using a crocodiles mouth as a sledge is good in my book!

Anyhow whilst its a fab and fun story and I really love the illustration style, i think what makes it so good is that there is ample opportunity to make the story come alive. I found it really easy to come up with voices for the characters in the story because of the animals used in it (crocodiles, squeaky mice, crows, croaky frogs). The text is also written in a way that helps reading with certain words written in different sizes so that you can't help emphasising them. There are also a couple of pages where there is no text so you can ask you child to add words (not that they are needed) which helps with making it interactive (and educational).

Mr Wani is indeed fantastic… (mehr)