Fun rhymes. Illustrations provide a nostalgic sensibility, but the concept of a child who wants to something more interesting & powerful is timeless. ( )

Genre: Fantasy
Media: Gouache and Watercolor
This book is about a boy who wants to be something else so his aunt sows him an alligator costume. Which he continues to wear until he is known as alligator boy. This is fantasy because you cannot go to school with this costume and you cannot become an alligator boy. I would only read this as a fun activity in the classroom but it was not my favorite. ( )

This book is great way to show kids that they can do and do anything if they use their imagination.

I had mixed feelings about this book after reading it. I liked the book because of the big message. The big message of this book was inclusion and acceptance. After the boy wanted to be an alligator so he dressed as one everywhere he went, by the end of the story his classmates accepted him and joined with him and engaged in activities together. I thought this was an awesome message of friendship and acceptance. I didn't like this story because oft he way it was written. It was kind of bland and each page had choppy sentences. I also wish the illustrations were more detailed. The pages held a lot of white space and the pictures were small and didn't cover a lot of the page. I feel like these factors made the book less engaging. ( )

This is a silly book, lacking depth. It is cute, but compared to Rylant's other stellar stories, I cannot recommend this one.

A young boy was tired of being a human -- a boy.

When his mother took him to a Natural History museum, he noticed a stuffed alligator.

From that time forward, he longs to become an alligator. Lucky for him, his distant Aunt sends an alligator costume, which he proceeds to wear everywhere, including to school, at home and in bed.

As the ending notes:
"What a good green life for an alligator boy!" ( )