In this Japanese traditional tale, a little white hare longs to see the world, and he wants to trick a crocodile into helping him.

This story is part of Reading Champion, a series carefully linked to book bands to encourage independent reading skills, developed with Dr Sue Bodman and Glen Franklin of UCL Institute of Education (IOE)

Reading Champion offers independent reading books for children to practise and reinforce their developing reading skills.

Fantastic stories are accompanied by engaging artwork and a reading activity. Each book has been carefully graded so that it can be matched to a child's reading ability, encouraging reading for pleasure.

Sue Graves, illustrated by Rachael Corcutt and Phillippa Corcutt