Trivia / Crictor

• What Could Have Been: In the published book, Madame Bodot is shocked and scared to find a snake in the package sent to her by her son. She throws her hands in the air, dropping her spectacles and knocking down a candelabra in her fright. But Tomi Ungerer's preparatory sketches for the book (held by the Free Library of Philadelphia as of 2022) show a very different scene, with Madame Bodot calmly and curiously regarding the young snake.

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