Lyle, Lyle Crocodile (50th Edition Storybook Treasury)
Bernard Waber
ISBN: 9780547516189
Contains the following four books:
The House on East 88th Street
Lyle, Lyle Crocodile
Lyle and the Birthday Party
Lyle Walks the Dogs
Finally - a classic children's book that I remember from childhood!
Anyway. I've loved Lyle forever. He's so sweet and funny shaped and bright green! These are the first four (I think) of the series, starting with the House on East 88th Street (featuring Hector P. Valenti, star of stage and screen!) and moving Lyle's sad tenure in the zoo (because of that mean old meany Loretta cat) his shenanigans at the birthday party that led to his hospitalization, and finally, his unfortunate dog-walking adventure (which is less of a story and more of a stretched counting rhyme, but it's Lyle, so really I'm not complaining too much here).
I didn't even know that there was a collected version until late last week, and I bought it on the spot. It's just as cute as I remember, although one tiny niggle that I didn't notice as a child was the emphasis on Lyle's being so "helpful" and doing lots of chores for the family, and how he always feels better after focusing on other people's needs (which is actually psychologically true, but somewhat problematic as a character trait if taken too far).
I dunno - I loved these as a kid, and I won't have any troubles reading them to my own, or having them read them to themselves, but I do think as an adult that Lyle is a bit more codependent than is really healthy. Although, if you're going to have a crocodile in a brownstone in a city, it's probably best to have a codependent one. Even if he is addicted to Turkish caviar.
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