I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting interpretation of the immigrant experience. I liked the crocodile character. The story wasn't my favorite, but I like the idea of it and the pictures.

This is a great little book about immigration to show kids that it's ok to be nervous or scared when you're going to a new home.

I think this book discusses an important topic but I'm not sure young children would really understand it. As I was reading, I found it hard to understand why the crocodile had gone alone and not with his family. For me the book touched on important points like learning to live and be accepted in a new place but was mostly about being alone. I'm not sure a young child can put themselves in a situation of being alone without parents, so for me I'm not really sure how I would use it in my classroom.

What a great way to explain the experience of being a refugee to kids and their adults! I love the story and the art. Since it's about animals, it helps relax the reader and create space for learning instead of defensiveness.

This was a cute little story. Putting a crocodile where he ends up seems an interesting end choice. I think this book is a way to open up conversation about immigrants which makes the choice of choosing a crocodile even more strange! And slightly less approachable. My children didn't seem to mind and enjoyed the story. I would rent this from the library if they wanted to but not sure I'd own it.

Home is where your heart is.
It is a bit sad book although it has a happy ending. I like the illustrations the most.

Crocodile's Crossing is a beautiful story with a deep message. In this story, the crocodile must find a new home. The home he has always known is no longer safe. So he journies off to find somewhere that is safe and welcoming for a crocodile. It takes a long time, but finally, crocodile finds the next place where he belongs.

A very cute book about a crocodile who has to leave home and is in search of a new place to call home. The art style of this book was really charming and the story was sweet. I think that the message of this book about never giving up and finding a new home was quite sweet. i think kids would really enjoy this book!

This brightly colored picture book is about Crocodile, who is on his way somewhere else. His home, that he loves, is no longer safe and he needs to find a new home. It's not easy, but eventually he finds a new place where is welcomed and accepted. This is a terrific story to use to talk to kids about immigration in their own communities as well as what that might look like somewhere else. Part of what's so great about this book is the spaces for conversation about why things are happening as they are. A terrific addition to any library.

Crocodile's Crossing is a great resource to use to begin a conversation about immigration and immigrants with your child(ren) or students.

This was a sweet book. Crocodile is no longer happy at home, so he must venture out to find a new place to call home. Crocodile is outcasted and things just don’t feel right. This is a nice book about change and friends.

I understand the premise of this book but I thought parts of it are very dark for the age group it is intended. I ending was sweet but again I don't think the darkness in the beginning, particularly the images, was necessary to help children understand immigration and the displacement of individuals due to violence in their homeland.

Great illustrations! The story works well and is fun to read aloud. I will be buying this for my elementary school library.

Crocodile has a nice home and everything he needs until things start getting bad and he has to flee. No matter where he tries to go, someone doesn’t want him. Until finally, he finds a place. He learns to love his new place, even though everything is so different.

A beautiful book to open the conversation about immigration. Crocodile, with his big green body and scary (although not too scary) white teeth, has a hard time getting accepted in safe places because he looks big and scary. But Crocodile has feelings and hopes, just like everyone else.

As an educator, I’ll use Crocodile’s Crossing to open a conversation about immigration, hosting, and colonialism with my high school history class. Parents will love the questions Crocodile’s Crossing brings up and fitting in and accepting others.

The illustrations are bright and delightful and full of talking points.

Crocodile’s story begins with a rocket’s eye view of planet Earth and this line... “Everything will be better where I’m going, he thought. But where is that?”

Crocodile must leave his home behind due to misfortunes and food shortage.

Crocodile’s journey across the sea takes him to towering cities, arid deserts, and lovely countrysides. All are beautiful and unique, but each is more unwelcoming than the last. Crocodile is told over and over that this is “NOT YOUR LAND.”

Frustrated, he decides to nap and dreams of safe and happier times when he was with friends and family. He wakes to a community of nice mice who are happy to take him in even though he is very much unlike the mice. Crocodile slowly learns the ways of the mice and begins to build fresh, and happy memories. He’s happy, yet something is missing. Enter the family and Crocodile’s joy is complete.

There are a few messages here... acceptance, rejection, Immigrants, perseverance, family.

The art work was my favorite. It is very detailed and I enjoyed studying the illustrations especially Crocodile’s expressions.

This would be a good thought provoking book to introduce the topic of refugees and immigrants.

Staying home is not always a choice, but HAVING a home may not be a choice we can make for ourselves. Written and illustrated by YOERI SLEGERS, this recent release blends recognizable global spaces with human attitudes and issues and emotions regarding a surprising central character: Crocodile.
Questions arise on the cover, continue throughout each spread, and resonate with an essential question on the back cover.
This engaging and hopeful tale is a parable for our modern world. Crocodile's colorful cover image brightly hints at his isolation and desperate journey, including continental geo-markers and, if you look closely, a lurking shark. Then endpapers instantly imply the stark reality of Crocodile's situation, overlaying global maps slashed with random arrows and routes, evidence of attempts launched and halted sporadically and unsuccessfully.
My reaction to this effective shift in tone was the thought: Where IS home?

The title and credits spread reveals Crocodile fishing to survive, alone, in a makeshift vessel of hope. I was especially taken with the thought that his natural traits (those many sharp teeth, for example) were not softened, yet his expressive eyes, body language, and circumstances made me care about him.
The first page turn echoes the cover but provides a more ominous perspective: a vivid awareness of his failure to find a safe harbor, more sharks, and a pulled-back perspective that isolates him even further. And yet the opening text of that first page reveals his resilient nature:

"Crocodile was on his way.
He was tired. Scared. Hopeful.
Everything will be better
where I'm going, he thought.
But where is that?"

Throughout this and every page that follows the minimal text is suffused with charm and wit, despite Crocodile's escalating struggles. Nuanced and detailed illustrations confirm that Crocodile's original home was once a safe and sociable place, until "trouble" suddenly makes it unsafe, threatening life and limb. With a sad farewell and wearing a red backpack, Crocodile is forced to seek a new HOME. Within the space of a few pages and words, his search is rejected, his identity assaulted, and his intentions are challenged. His resources depleted, his empty nights are filled with dreams of the home he left behind.
Then the mice discover him.

Interior: Crocodile's Crossing: A Search for Home (Flyaway Books)

I particularly loved this aspect of the story: this is not one compassionate mouse pulling a thorn from a lion's paw, but an advanced community of mice who recognize a wandering soul in need of a home. (By the way, the pages with mice provide an open invitation to explore each and every little mouse, their expressions, roles, and relationships to the others.)

I've already revealed far too much, but I hope you trust my promise that the ending is satisfying on every level. There is nothing about it that is trite, but everything about it is universal.
The subtitle, A Search for Home, says it all.
This is an entertaining story with delightful characters and visual appeal. The essential theme elevates it from general appeal to a book of lasting value. We can all learn something from Crocodile and the community of mice who recognized and empathized with another creature in need.
Even one with very sharp teeth.
Even when the seeker didn't look anything like them.
Insert one adjective into that essential rhetorical question from the back cover:
"What happens when MY home can't be home anymore?"

I received an ARC through NetGalley from Flyaway Books. My son said this was a sad book even though it had a happy ending. I think that was really perceptive and demonstrated the impact of the book’s message. Things aren’t going well and Crocodile leaves his home. He can’t find a place where he is accepted, finally some mice are kind to him and he learns their ways. At the end Crocodile’s family comes to be with him. Ultimately, this is an immigrant or refugee story. It is hard to miss your home and not go back, even if you find a new place that works for you. The illustrations were good. The ending felt a little abrupt. There is definitely room to talk about Crocodile’s experience with children. Recommended ages 4-7.

This is a story of a crocodile whose home is no longer safe for him and his family, so he begins a search for a new one. It's a gentle and touching story about a refugee. Children will feel empathy for the plight of Crocodile, and he's also a hero to root for. I highly recommend this story.

Thanks to #netgalley and #flyaway books for the advance reading copy.

I found the story to simplistic and the pictures to detailed to be part of the same book for my younger students,

Crocodile's Crossing is a sweet little book that opens up the discussion on what it might be like for a refugee who must leave his home. I was confused about the crocodile's age as I thought he was a child throughout the book but at the end he was wearing a tie and greeting his family?