When Crocs Fly

Crocodiles rocked! This was such an enjoyeable quick read!

This was a fun comic collection. Pastis seems to focus on a few different groupings of animals and they interact with an edge. The crocs are always trying to get the zebras to come over to be lunch. The penguins try to find ways to not get eaten by the polar bear (and seem to seldom succeed.) Just the right thing to enjoy when I need a break from books with heavier content.

(Full review @Goodreads)

This was always one of my favorite "funnies", because I've always been fascinated with nature and animals and originally started my degree to end up in wildlife management intending to go on to zoology, etc. My minor of English ended up taking over though.

I think the Crocs and the Zebra are my favorite running gag in the strip, and this collection had plenty of them as well as the other characters: Pig, Rat, Goat, etc.

A hilarious collection, with lots of puns. I can't choose which is my favourite character. They are all equally outrageously funny, naive and if you know such characters in real life, will lead you to have high blood pressure if you're not a patient person.

Will definitely check out other volumes in the series.

When Crocs Fly combines the sarcastic put downs and delivery of Garfield with the physical humor of Looney Toons. The jokes are mainly puns, misunderstandings, or a combination of both. The longest scenes are only two pages, so Pastis never really writes a story- it is more a collection of vignettes, which could be perfect for readers with shorter attention spans.

But, if your child is reading this, make sure that they have strong language skills. Whenever the crocs speak, their voice is written phonetically, which could be problematic for beginner readers. I think it's the equivalent of trying to read cursive handwriting... just different enough to cause a problem.

Some beloved characters from other comics make very brief cameos in this. I won't say which ones because that would ruin the fun!

Though I didn't have any laugh out loud moments in this one, my favorite page was 'The Trophy from the Ping Pong League' (pg 85) where it's labeled as 'Best Participation by Someone in our League who can Breathe and has Participated.' When Crocs Fly has clever ways of skewering reality, but I'm afraid that the more subtle jokes will go over the kiddie's heads.

I'd recommend it for ages 10+. Thanks for reading!

This book is simple and funny, and that’s one of the things that I love the most about the series ‘Pearls before Swine’ .

Another thing that I love about ‘Pearls before Swine’ is that random short stories end up being a part of a bigger one, and I believe that Pastis did that once again with this new volume.

Another great thing about this volume is that it had a lot of Zebra VS Crocs, and those are my favourite banters.

Pearls Before Swine is always good for a chuckle. I love the crocodiles that have a horrible understanding of English and the way the world works in general and the play on words situations that Pig gets into. Really this comic is an English lovers dream (or perhaps a linguaphiles dream, but that might be a little pretentious lol.) Since I don't often get to read the newspaper funnies, reading a compilation of the comics really gave me an understanding of the personalities that Pastis has given his characters which made the book even more enjoyable for me. I will definitely try to find Pastis on social media so I can chuckle at his work more often.

If you enjoy puns, running gags, and do not mind comic violence; you are likely to enjoy When Crocs Fly. But do remember that this is a Pearls Before Swine collection so all is not as it first appears. Crocs do fly in the book, but not well or far. And you will be reminded of certain people in your life as characters react to their situations. Just sit back, and savor the shenanigans.

I've not read a 'Pearls before Swine' compilation prior to this one although I've chuckled at the ones a friend regularly shares on Facebook. This book was a delight, combining the slapstick of the Crocs with their long suffering zeeba neighba, and the comedy of Rat, Goat and Pig. Puns are fun!

When Crocs Fly: A Pearls Before Swine Collection by Stephan Pastis is a wonderful collection for those familiar with the comic strip. Sadly, judging by other Goodreads reviews, comic strips are going out of vogue. Many expected a graphic novel of some sort (I guess the word "collection" in the title didn't clue them in) and some really just didn't grasp the characters at all (the crocs are after zebra, not rat and pig, and there is no adopting of characters by other characters, not sure what that reviewer was reading).

Perhaps this will only be enjoyable for those familiar with the idea of a comic strip or with those familiar with the Pearls Before Swine strip in particular. Fortunately, I am familiar with both so I enjoyed it a lot.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

This is such a fun book. Comic strips are so unthreatening to kids that they don't feel like they are reading. Timmy Failure is such a big hit in our library that I have no doubt that the Crocs will be, too. My only worry is that my kids who have trouble reading to begin with might be really confused by the non-standard speech and spelling in this book. Altogether, though, I think the non-threatening nature of the book will over come the difficulties in reading it.

A collection of comic strips of the long running Pearls Before Swine, it’s a good introduction for those who’ve never enjoyed this pun-heavy hilarity as well as people who want an economy-size dose of these wacky animal characters.
Particular jokes to be on the lookout:
Pig shaking hands with a scorpion. . . so perfect. (I have to laugh, because otherwise I’d cry at the memory of being bitten on the hand. . . twice.)
Yeah, spoiler alert on Abraham Lincoln’s assassinat. . . oops, sorry.
Take it as a gibbon. . . almost spewed.
I feel the same way about the Paris sights.
I really don’t feel sorry for the penguin who lost his wife.
French fries go to a happy place.
Puns. . . so many puns. . .
4.5 pushed up to 5/5

Thoroughly enjoyable for new and old fans of Pearls Before Swine.

I've never been the biggest fan of "Pearls Before Swine" but it's worth a good chuckle here and there. I liked that he branched out to more animals - the penguin/polar bear section was delightful, if predictable, and the lemmings too were funny. I do think young kids would enjoy this collection - the crocs ever failing attempts to kill zebra and Pig's endless ability to take things literally and misunderstand should delight children much like the Loony Tunes characters delighted me at that young age.

I enjoyed this book having only previously known of the author through his Timmy Failure series. This child-friendly version of his adult comic strip reminded me of Peanuts and Garfield with its dry humour and gags built through repetition. I'm not sure at what age the comics are pitched at but I'd suggest 11+ just because of the complexity of some of the humour.

When Crocs Fly is a collection of Pearls Before Swine comics which are aimed a younger public. I would only recommend it to people familiar with the comics prior to reading it.

Once again, follow the adventures of the many animals as they try to eat or prevent they get eaten.

It was decent. Some of it was quite funny, not laughing out loud though, but many things were also mwah. I'm not sure how much of this is the result of me growing up, because I do recall I really liked the comic some years ago. Maybe it means I'm getting old.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I thought this book was pretty funny. It is a collection from a comic strip that typically appears in newspapers. I've read the strip before and enjoyed it quite a bit. All of the characters are animals who live in the same neighborhood. The crocs might just be my favorite characters from it.

The characters aren't given an introduction though, so someone who isn't familiar with them might have a harder time getting into the book. There isn't a lot that the reader needs to know about these characters, but I wouldn't recommend this book to someone new to the series.

Not all of the strips feature the crocs. This is okay because the other characters add some diversity to the book. The crocs aren't very smart, and spend a lot of energy trying to figure out how to eat their zebra neighbor. A lot of the humor is at the expense of characters that aren't very bright, which can get a little old.

There are better collections out there, but fans of the series should enjoy it.

My introduction to Pearls Before Swine. Clearly geared towards children, full of lots and lots of puns.

'When Crocs Fly: A Pearls Before Swine Collection' by Stephan Pastis brings back the usual gang of animals (and some new ones) for some really funny comics.

Zebra is plagued by his neighbors the crocodiles who want him to come over for a barbecue, and to be the main course. Pig is still not very bright, but he is pretty endearing. There are some penguins who can't find their wives, but should be more worried about a hungry polar bear lurking nearby. There are also some lemmings who regret things they've done.

I find this comic strip to be very funny. I always devour a new collection, and it always makes me laugh, especially the clueless crocodiles and their always failing attempt to lure zebra on to their table. The humor here is perfectly appropriate for children, and my inner child.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.