“Nobody will see me because this time I’ve thought up secret plans and clever tricks.”
As the book opens, two crocodiles are buried so deep in the muddiest river in Africa that only their eyes peering above the surface are visible. The Enormous Crocodile announces his intention to trek through the jungle to the nearby town and eat kids for lunch that day. His companion, the Notsobig One, avers, suggesting that A) kids are nasty and bitter and 2) the size of his fellow croc which earns him his name is matched only by his ugliness and therefore they will see him coming. Just like last time. Ah, but you see, the Enormous Crocodile has a plan.
“Lookout, Toto! Look out, Mary! That’s not a coconut tree! It’s the Enormous Crocodile and he wants to eat you up!”
Humpy-Rumpy is a hippopotamus who also calls the jungle home. On his way into town, the paths of these two water creatures crossed and upon learning what the croc had in mind, the hippo chastised him for wanting to eat children by expressing the hope that he would be turned into crocodile soup. The crocodile has similar encounters with a monkey named Muggle-Wump and the Roly-Bird. These confrontations all play out roughly the same way, with the other animals expressing the apparently universal opinion that the Enormous Crocodile is the nastiest creature in the jungle. The first secret plan and clever trick of Enormous was to disguise himself as a coconut tree and lay in wait for some kids to try climbing him. Humpy-Rumpy shows up just in time to foil this particular strategy. Muggle-Wump and Roly-Poly will later show put to up the kibosh on succeeding plans to entice kids to lunch.
Trunky began to swing the Crocodile round and round in the air. At first he swung him slowly.
Then he swung him faster…
And faster…
And FASTER…
And FASTER STILL…
Also along the path to town is Trunky the elephants. Things played out a little differently with Trunky than with the other three animals. Namely: the Enormous Crocodile bit Trunky on the leg. Trunky expressed a very, very similar wish for the ultimate fate to come down upon the crocodile, hoping that he turned into crocodile stew rather than soup. And just as their initial encounter of the day carried a slight twist, so does their second encounter differ from that between Enormous and the hippo, monkey and bird. Trunky don’t play. Instead of merely saving the children from one horrible fate, the elephant settles things for good. Suffice to say that the Enormous Crocodile isn’t enormous—or a crocodile, or clever for that matter—anymore.
