Shovel Nose and the Gator Grabbers — Robert Edmond Alter

When a young alligator tad with a disfigured snout brings humiliation and discomfort to Dad Peps, there begins a legendary feud between "Shovel Nose," who grows to the stature of a great gator, and Dad Peps, who fancies himself as a great gator grabber.

It is more a laugh-aloud series of encounters than a deadly feud, and you will enjoy the blow by hilarious blow description of each encounter. In his pursuit of the bob-nosed alligator, Dad Peps is assisted by his son, Hughie (if you are of a mind to regard as "assistant" the partner who performs 96 percent of the labor.) In eight farcical encounters between Shovel Nose and the Pepses, other beasts, and other Homo sapiens are sometimes enmeshed, but in the final encounter it is Shovel Nose versus the Pepses deep in the primordial swamp.

In his fanatic determination to capture Shovel Nose, Dad Peps' ingenuity always exceeds his practicality, and the result invariably makes life no worse than unsettling for Shovel Nose, unsatisfying tor Dad Peps, and provides hilarity for the reader. A classic children's book, parts of which were serialized in Boy's Life magazine.