I’m looking for a book I read in the 1970s as a child. I don’t remember much about it except for two things: there was an alligator or crocodile in it, and elsewhere in the story someone was flipping peas up with a spoon (maybe a knife?) and catching them as a diversion to some sort of caper. Help!
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
I think this is The Alligator Case, by William Pene Du Bois
For some reason, this made me think of Big Max by Kin Platt. Big Max is a detective. The time frame is right, and he definitely encounters a crocodile (this book was the first time I’d encountered the phrase “crocodile tears”). I don’t offhand remember any peas, though.
Could it be the Nutshell Library by Maurice Sendak?
Could this be Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile by Bernard Waber? I don’t remember peas either, but there are several books in the series.
It is, indeed, “The Alligator Case” by William Pene DuBois.Thank you Susan Reagal! I am now in possession of it!