The Crocodolly by Martin Mc Kenna is a fabulous book! The children absolutely love the story, but I just adore the underlying message that girls can smash stereotypes yet still retain some of their inbuilt natural inclination towards ‘girly’ things. I love that girls beginning to receive greater encouragement to push barriers yet still retain a degree of femininty. It’s been slow going, but thank goodness the days when a woman had to behave as ‘one of the boys’ in order to be successful are slowly disappearing.
Adelaide gender smashing type of girl. She can make all kinds of things because she can hammer, saw cook, sew and weld.
She discovers a crocodile in an egg while she is baking one day. Being a creative and inventive individual she names the croc Ozzy and comes up with a cunning plan to keep her crocodile unlike her previous unsuccessful experiences with pets.
She disguises Ozzy as a dolly. The remainder of the book is such a funny tale detailing Adelaide’s exploits keeping a crocodile undercover. The illustrations are absolutely brilliant and tell much of the tale. Finally, thanks to a death roll in a supermarket aisle, Ozzy cannot conceal his dolly identity any longer. Adelaide has to come up with another plan for her crocodile.
My favourite page is a shot of all the disgruntled townsfolk lined up at Adelaide’s door to complain. Not only is it a delectable smorgasbord of comedic characters using a delicious array of adjectives voicing their disapproval. I love the cut out squares of the curtains which suddenly explains how Adelaide adjusted and patchworked the dolly dress on an evergrowing body.
I think I might love this book so much, because I can already see that my little girl is one of those power packed females who doesn’t let a gender stereotype limit her actions. I love that she is being brought up where fictional girls like Adelaide only normalise an real life attitude that empowers growing females. I would suggest this as a must read for little girls, but don’t stop at reading it to your girls. My boys loved this book, and let’s be real here. Not only do we want to raise strong females that smash stereotypes, we need to be raising young men who have a multi-dimensional view of genders and don’t box males or females into narrowly prescribed gender based roles.
Disclaimer: I was gifted this book from Scholastic, but truly. I do love the book!
