Apple, Apple, Alligator: A Picture-Puzzle Book

A brawny alligator named Al and his ingenious best friend, Joe the dog. An orchard. And a story with a puzzle ending that needs your help: can you figure out a way to reach the apples without a ladder? Use the colorful, chunky, interlocking pieces to solve the puzzle, and put Al and Joe's world in apple pie order.

Joe the dog and his friend Al the alligator try to figure a way to buy an apple orchard and pick the sweet red apples growing there.

Fresh on the heels of his successful 10 Button Book, inspired folk artist and author William Accorsi is back from his enchanted workshop with a unique interactive board book.

Apple, Apple, Alligator is an illustrated, full-color storybook with a twist-nestled in the cover are chunky puzzle pieces reminiscent of old wooden toys that the reader must put together to finish the story. An imaginative and charming tale about friendship, goals, hard work, and shapes-and perhaps most important, about learning to think outside the box-Apple, Apple, Alligator tells of a dog named Joe, his best friend, Al the alligator, and their shared love of apples. When Joe and Al learn that an apple orchard is for sale, they try to figure out how to earn money to buy it, and the fun part is seeing the unexpected ideas they think of. Then it's up to the reader to solve the final puzzle-how to reach those tall trees and begin picking sweet red apples. And as with any puzzle, kids will want to solve it again and again and again.

Children's Literature

Joe, the dog, and Al, the alligator work as a team to solve problems in this unusual picture book. The unlikely duo wants to buy an apple orchard but has no money. Joe, the brains, thinks up ways to make money, and Al, the brawn, implements Joe's ideas. In the end though, it is Al who comes up with a way for Joe to pick the apples without a ladder. The book is designed with movable puzzle pieces so the reader can solve the apple-picking problem on his/her own. It's a neat idea, but once the puzzle has been solved the novelty of the story is lost. As problem-solving storybook teams go, Joe and Al are no Frank and Earnest or Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne, but they could spark an interesting discussion on division of labor, the nature of teamwork, or creative problem solving. 2000, Workman Publishing, Ages 3 to 7, $14.95. Reviewer: Eileen Hanning—Children's Literature

William Accori is the only artist to have been awarded two solo exhibitions at New York's American Craft Museum. He has had numerous other museum exhibitions in department and specialty stores, where he has shown his children's furniture, play sculpture, and toys. He is the author of 10 Button Book as well as six other children's book, including My Name Is Pocahontas, Friendship's First Thanksgiving, and Accorsi Puzzles. Mr. Accorsi lives in New York City.