Eat Your Rocks, Croc!: Dr. Glider’s Advice for Troubled Animals

Gr 1-3–This nonfiction catalog of animal facts is formatted as an advice column for animals penned by a sugar glider named Dr. Glider. Each spread covers a different species and features its own color palette, but “letters” to Glider are always green. The facts are interesting and unusual; they are also fairly random and interspersed with anthropomorphic traits such as a yoga-practicing owl and utensil-using crustaceans. Glider, who can effortlessly operate a submarine, can also travel from Kenya to Sweden to the South China Sea to Western Europe without a hitch. The narrator and advice seekers use informal, flippant slang, while informational captions use scientific language. Some of the vocabulary words are far beyond the first through third grade level at which this book is aimed. A glossary is included, but the book’s haphazard arrangement discourages its use as a reference source for older readers.