The Crocodile Who Didn’t Like Water by Gemma Merino is about more than what the title suggests. The crocodile, who didn’t like water, wanted to play with his brothers and sisters, but they loved to play and swim in the water and he did not. He loved to climb trees, but they did not. His siblings wore red tennis shoes, while he wore red galoshes. The story follows the lonely crocodile’s efforts to overcome his fear of water and swimming, so he can play with his siblings. The story is not really about gaining courage and overcoming one’s fears of water and swimming.
This story is about children adopted at birth, who need to discover their identity and heritage. The crocodile, who didn’t like water, was a dragon, not a crocodile. The story began with his feeling lonely, because he could not swim and play in the water with his siblings. The protagonist looked like a crocodile, but he was different from the others. However, he didn’t know why he was different from his siblings until he tried to fit in with his siblings and attempted to swim. He tried to swim with a swim ring and without a swim ring. Nothing he did allowed him to be like his siblings. His siblings were crocodiles and were born to swim. He looked like a crocodile and should have been able to do crocodilian activities, but he was a dragon and was born to climb, breathe fire, and fly through the air.
The more the protagonist tried to be the same as his siblings, the more different he became by evolving into his true self, a dragon. After he almost drowned from jumping into the water without the swim ring, he sneezed and blew fire out of his mouth. He began to evolve into his true self by sprouting small wings, growing a longer tail, and growing a slightly bigger body. He was never going to be the same as his crocodile siblings no matter what he did in an effort to fit in. His efforts to be the same as his crocodile siblings made his differences more apparent to himself and to his siblings. However, in this fictional story, his crocodile siblings wanted to play with him as a result of his differences. Evolving into a dragon attracted the friendship he craved. He was able to do things they could not such as taking his crocodile siblings on a hot air balloon ride by breathing fire and hot air into it. As the protagonist became a bigger dragon, his crocodile siblings were able to ride on his back as he flew through the sky.
The protagonist gained friends once he and his siblings discovered he was really a dragon and not a crocodile with a fear of water. His natural talents to breathe fire and fly made him special. The others liked him and wanted to hang out with him now that he is a dragon. Before discovering what he is really is, he was just a strange, little crocodile, who didn’t like water. Now, he is a dragon, who can climb trees, fly, and breathe fire. The protagonist is no longer defined by his fear of water, but by his natural talents.
Pay attention to the pictures on the inside front and back covers of this book. Before the story begins, there is a picture on the inside, front cover of the book of an adult crocodile carrying a basket of blue eggs and one white egg. After the story ends, there is a picture on the inside, back cover of the book of an adult dragon, wearing red galoshes and sitting on a tree branch with a swim ring filled with white eggs and one blue egg. The adult dragon is reading a book titled, “The dragon who didn’t like fire.” Based on these illustrations, the protagonist was adopted by a crocodile family, which is demonstrated by the very first, inside illustration before the story even begins. By the end, the protagonist became an adult dragon and adopted a crocodile egg to raise with his own dragon eggs. This story is a metaphor for what really happens with adoptive children and families. Sometimes, people, who were adopted as children, grow up and adopt children of their own, because they know what it feels like to be different, to be adopted, and to not know where they came from in terms of identity, lineage, or heritage. The final picture at the end of the book has identified the young protagonist of the story as the adopting parent by showing us an adult dragon, sitting on a tree branch, wearing red galoshes, and using his old swim ring as a nest. The surprising thing is the protagonist is referred to as “he” throughout the story. Therefore, the protagonist is not female even though the final picture shows the protagonist as an adult dragon sitting on a tree branch with a nest of eggs. For this story, being male should not exclude one from the responsibilities of babysitting and parenting. A female dragon may have laid those dragon eggs, but he still has to watch them.
This story has several lessons. One lesson is that others will like you if you embrace your own differences, identity, and heritage. In this story, the protagonist’s crocodile siblings did not freak out and run away from him in terror as he evolved into a dragon. Actually, his crocodile siblings should have freaked out in fear at least, temporarily. The protagonist breathed fire suddenly and burned the diving board. Someone could have gotten hurt. That is a legitimate reason to freak out. Instead, they accepted him for the cool, new things he can do that they could not. In reality, this automatic acceptance of the protagonist’s differences would not happen in most cases; however, this story is fictional. Many authors use fiction to write about how the world should be, not necessarily about how the world is.
A second lesson is for the majority to recognize the benefit in another person’s differences. An individual or a minority group, who is different, might have skills or knowledge that enriches the quality of life for the majority group. For example, the protagonist’s crocodile siblings were able to fly only because they had adopted a dragon into their family. The crocodile siblings can now ride on a dragon’s back for fun or to run an errand just because the protagonist is their adoptive brother.
Finally, the most important lesson in this story is how adoptive families must create an environment for adoptive children to embrace their own differences, identity, and heritage. In this story, the protagonist was being raised as a crocodile and felt lonely, because he could not swim and play in the water like his siblings. In reality, there are Euro-American families adopting black children. You could tell children that they can become anything they put their minds to regardless of race if they study hard, practice, and go to college. What do Euro-American adoptive parents tell their black adoptive children when that child wishes over and over for straight hair or blond hair? At the end of this story, the protagonist is reading a book about the experiences of a crocodile raised as a dragon. He already knows what to expect from a crocodilian child; he has spent his life growing up with a family of crocodiles. The author is showing us this picture to tell us that adoptive families need to be educated about their adoptive child’s heritage and identity in order to create a nurturing environment where the adoptive child embraces his own differences and the adoptive child feels included and valued by the rest of the family for his differences from the very beginning.
Reference
Merino, Gemma. The Crocodile Who Didn’t Like Water. New York: NorthSouth Books Inc., 2014.
Links:
The Crocodile Who Didn’t Like Water at Amazon.com
The Crocodile Who Didn’t Like Water at Barnes & Noble
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