SOLVED. Baby alligator arrives in box of oranges? [s]

[Kate]

Are you sure is wasn't a boa constrictor? Crictor

[[deleted user]]

I think I had this book, but I can't remember the title. My copy was yellow. Hmm...

[Cathy]

The attempted by mugging is definitely from Crictor -- he wraps up a burglar in his coils and holds him until the police arrive.

[Kate]

Could it be one (or more) of the Lyle the Crocodile books? The first one is called The House on East Eighty-eighth Street, and they find Lyle living in their new house's bathtub. He is a hero figure in some of the books, like, in Lovable Lyle, he saves a neighbor from drowning after she has been sending him hate mail. Not sure I remember a mugging, but you could check!

[Josie]

In The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enwright, the town policeman and his wife have an alligator they keep in their bathtub that I'm pretty sure was delivered to them in a box of oranges... later in the story the main characters are given the alligator and it lives in a water tank outside, until there are floods and it's washed out and disappears...

[Abigail (42stitches)]

I thought of Tomie De Paola's Bill and Pete series. They do eventually make it to America, but I don't believe they get mailed. They are always saving the day in some way though...

[Kate]

I'm sure I've found it! Elizabeth and Larry by Marilyn Sadler!

http://www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Larry...

Description of a video based on the book, from parenthood.com, says, "On the same video, kids will warm to the funny tale of “Elizabeth and Larry,” in which kind, elderly Elizabeth gets the surprise of her life when she opens a crate of Florida oranges to find a baby alligator inside! Larry the crocodile and Elizabeth soon become inseparable, even doing household chores together. The tale is adapted from the picture book by Marilyn Sadler and Roger Bollen."

[Lisa]

Kate, Thank you.
Anna, That's wonderful! Please come back and let us know for sure, and if it's the book, we can marked it as solved.

[Lisa]

Thanks Anna. And Kate, and everyone.

[Rainbowheart]

Elizabeth and Larry for the GR link.