Oliver and his Alligator

Submitted by Ms. Catherine!

Going to school for the first time can be a scary experience for children. However, if you have an alligator, school can be much less scary.  In Oliver and his Alligator, written and illustrated by Paul Schmid, Oliver isn’t sure if he is brave enough for school. Therefore, he does what any logical child would do – he invites an alligator to accompany him on this first frightening day. When a woman who is definitely not Oliver’s mom asks for his name, Oliver can’t remember, so instead he says “Munch Munch!” and the alligator gets a little fuller. When the children in the room are a bit noisier than Oliver likes, the alligator just needs to “munch munch!” again for everything to be much quieter. Now that everything is quiet, and Oliver’s Alligator is much plumper, Oliver is ready for school to begin. However, now he notices that school isn’t quite so much fun without anyone with whom he can play. Oliver decides that maybe he wants to be munched too! With soft colors and broad lines, the illustrations of this book perfectly capture Oliver’s worry and his need for an alligator protector. This sweet, funny book would be a wonderful way to help a child who is worried about that first day of school see that everything will be just fine, and it’s always okay to take an alligator with you (at least in your imagination). See this book listed in our catalog