Jo Lodge's bold green crocodile - Mr Croc, to you - has become a popular face in the world of first children's books. Lodge's chunky colours and expressive yet cartoony style makes the connection between story and child an easy one.
Here, the board book format plus the size of the book (it's not much larger than a CD) make this a great book from six months up.
At first, a book like this is just nice to flick through while your baby is on your lap. Enjoy talking about the images and the colours, and familiarise your baby with its content.
Once your baby can sit up and flick through the pages, the pop-ups and flaps become a fun game, and by 18 months, your child can begin to appreciate the objects in the images and the jolly narrative. By 24 months you'll have a budding artist on your hands who knows their blue from their green from their red!
'With his yellow pencil, Mr Croc draws... a yummy yellow banana!'
With his red pencil, Mr Cros draws... a red shiny ladybird.'
As you move through the book and turn the pages, you can ask your toddler what he thinks Mr Croc can draw that is blue, or green and so on, making a game of these early experiences of reading.
Great fun.
