Isaac reads Part 4 of Roald Dahl's The Enormous Crocodile, where the crocodile disguises himself as a bench to trap children at a picnic. Trunky the elephant swings him into space, and he crashes into the sun and gets sizzled up like a sausage.
Chapters
Suddenly there was a swish and a swish, and something came swishing and swishing out of the sky. Who do you think it is? It was the Roly-Poly Bird! He flew round and round the merry-go-round, singing, Look out! Look out, Jill! Look out! Look out!
Look!
Don't ride on the crocodile! Jill stopped and looked up. That's not a wooden crocodile! sang the roly-poly bird. It's a real one! It's the enormous crocodile from the river! And he wants you! He wants to eat you up! Jill turned and ran. So did all the other children. Even the man who was working the merry-go-round jumped off and ran away as fast as he could. The enormous crocodile cursed the roly-poly bird and waddled back into the bushes to hide. I am so hungry now, he said to himself. I could eat 6 children before I'm full up. Just outside the town, there was a pretty little field with trees and bushes all around it. This was called the picnic place. There were several wooden tables and long benches, and people were allowed to go there and have a picnic at any time. The enormous crocodile crept over to the picnic place. There was no one in sight. Now for clever trick number 4, he whispered to himself. He picked a lovely bunch of flowers and arranged it on one of the tables. From the same table he took away one of the benches and hid it in the bushes. Then he placed himself in the place where the bench had been. By tucking his head under his chest and twisting his tail out of sight, he had made himself look very much like a long wooden bench with 4 legs. Soon 2 boys and 2 girls came along carrying baskets of food. They were all from one family, and their mother had said that they could go out and have a picnic together. Which table should we sit at? Let's take the table with the lovely flowers on it! The enormous crocodile kept as quiet as a mouse. I shall eat them all up, he said to himself. They will come and sit on my back, and I will swizzle my head around quickly, and after that it will be squish, crunch, gob! Suddenly a big deep voice from the jungle shouted, Stand back, children!
Stand back! Stand back!
The children stopped and stared at the place where the voice was coming from. Then, with a crashing of branches, Trunky the elephant came rushing out of the jungle.
That's not a bench you were going to sit on!
he bellowed.
It's the enormous crocodile and he wants to eat you all up!
trotted over to the spot where the enormous crocodile was standing. And quick as a flash, he wrapped his trunk around the crocodile's tail and hoisted him up into the air.
Hey! Let me go!
yelled the enormous crocodile, who was now dangling upside down.
Let me go! Let me go!
No! Trunky said.
I will not let you go! We've all had quite enough of your clever tricks!
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! Soon the enormous crocodile was just a blurry circle going round and round Trunky's head. Ooh, what do you think is going to happen? Suddenly, Trunky let go of the crocodile's tail, and the crocodile went shooting high up into the sky like a huge green rocket. Up and up he went, higher and higher, faster and faster. He was going so fast and so high that soon the Earth was just a tiny dot miles below. He whizzed on and on. He whizzed far into space. He whizzed past the moon. He whizzed past stars and planets. Until at last— where do you think he landed? With an enormous, tremendous—
Bang!
The enormous crocodile crashed headfirst into the hot, hot sun, and he was sizzled up like a sausage.
