Arrivederci, Crocodile –20 years in the making– has arrived!

It is our indescribable pleasure to announce that Arrivederci, Crocodile, the long-awaited sequel to I, Crocodile has finally arrived. The official publication date was September 10th, 2019. Fred had completed the story, the page layouts, all of the sketches, and half of the finished illustrations when he died in 2001. It seemed more than unlikely that the book would ever see the light of day. But thanks to Holly McGhee of Pippin Properties and Caitlyn Dlouhy of Atheneum Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, and the incredible talent and enthusiasm of the French illustrator Eric Puybaret, here it is!!

Arrivederci, Crocodile
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
First edition (September 10, 2019)
Hardcover: 40 pages
Buy Arrivederci, Crocodile on Amazon

Publishers Weekly: Fred Marcellino’s “Crocodile” Resurfaces

From Publishers Weekly, December 1, 2016:

Illustrators often bemoan how long it takes for an idea to become a finished book. But few titles will ever rival the prolonged gestation of Arrivederci Crocodile, a sequel to the late Fred Marcellino’s award-winning I Crocodile, which will be published in September 2019, exactly 20 years after the publication of the original book. An unusual deal, recently brokered by Marcellino’s agent Holly McGhee, involved working with two publishers, recruiting a new artist to finish the illustrations, and winning approval from Marcellino’s family.

“We could not be more delighted,” said Jean Marcellino, who manages her late husband’s estate with their son, Nico. “We continued to have hope that it would see the light of day in some fashion, but after all this time it still feels like a great surprise.”

Read the full article from Publishers Weekly