Lyle Finds His Mother

It's been over a year since the opportunity presented itself for a preschool book festival. The last time we celebrated the silliness of Daniel Pinkwater's polar bear named Larry. This time we are delighting in Bernard Waber's brownstone-dwelling crocodile, Lyle.


Lyle came to students' attention when he saved the drowning Clover Sue Hipple during our swimming art unit. Children, the true enquiring minds, wanted to know more about how Lyle came to live with the Primm family in The House On East 88th Street. I wanted to get reacquainted with Lyle's mother now that my own little crocodiles have grown up.

The oldest photo in this group is a mind-blowing quarter century old. I sewed a Halloween costume for a major Lyle fan in 1984. His younger brothers wore the costume in 1987 and 1989. Cousins carried on the crocodile tradition.


While all the boys loved being Lyle, only one transformed Lyle into a firefighting stuntrider.



© 2009 Nancy L. Ruder