Alligators and Crocodiles

Gr 35Gibbons's signature artwork splashes across the pages of this competent look at crocodilians. While indicating that there are 14 species of crocs and 2 of gators, the author focuses mainly on the American alligator and the American crocodile, disparate cousins that share a geographical environment (with the crocs mainly hugging southern Florida and the Keys). Gibbons discusses anatomical differences and similarities, mobility, hunting techniques, nest building, and parenting in her brief, readable text, using illustrations and diagrams to drive home her points. She closes with a plea for the conservation of these relics from the days of the dinosaurs and an extra page of saurian factoids. Simpler than Lisa Bullard's "What's the Difference Between an Alligator and a Crocodile?" (Picture Window) or Laurence Pringle's "Alligators and Crocodiles!: Strange and Wonderful" (Boyds Mills, both 2009), this is a colorful introduction to a pair of reptiles in our Southern states, with some toothy eye-candy on the cover."Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY" Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

"(Gibbons) has chosen facts that will engage her readers, organized the information logically, and presented it in straightforward exposition."