I saw some tweets about Snappsy The Alligator, and immediately knew that my girls would love this book. I made a request through my library network, and was amazed when the book arrived at my town library only two days later.

Snappsy The Alligator (Did Not Ask to Be in This Book!) is a picture book written by Julie Falatko and illustrated by Tim Miller.

The premise is rather clever: as the narrator describes what Snappsy is doing, the alligator breaks the fourth wall to address the narrator directly. He is annoyed by the narrator’s descriptions, and he does not like being followed around. Snappsy even ends up changing his plans because he knows he is being watched! Can Snappsy and the narrator resolve their feud before the end of the book?

The illustrations are lovely. As soon as I showed the book to my girls, they asked me if Mo Willems had illustrated them. I have to agree, they do look similar, but Tim Miller’s illustrations have tons of little details. We especially enjoyed the scene at the store- be sure to look at all the jars on the shelf in the “P” aisle- pudding in a bag, plum stuff…hilarious! We also liked seeing Snappsy in his house wearing a fez!

Snappsy The Alligator is an adorable book.   My girls loved being able to “interact” with Snappsy as he grew increasingly more irritated with the narrator, who tries to characterize him as a mean and hungry predator. Snappsy is just trying to be himself!

I would absolutely recommend Snappsy The Alligator. This is a very funny book that will appeal to older preschoolers and children in the early years of elementary school. My girls laughed and laughed as we read this book. I know that we’ll be picking up our own copy of this book, and I certainly hope that this isn’t the last that we see of Snappsy!