ONE MONKEY TOO MANY – 1999
By Jackie French Koller
Illustrations by Lynn Munsinger
Harcourt Brace & Company
By Jackie French Koller
Illustrations by Lynn Munsinger
Harcourt Brace & Company
SUMMARY:
An ever-growing group of monkeys seek out many rides and pleasures while disregarding the advice of limitations from their elder animal contemporaries. The story begins with one monkey being told a bike is suitable for only a single rider but that monkey is joined immediately by another to a fate of calamity. The situations continue through a golf cart ride, canoe expedition, fancy dinner, hotel accommodations, and eventually the crowding and take over of the book itself when one monkey too many joins in on the fun and pandemonium.
FOR PARENTS:
Parents shouldn’t be surprised to find their children wanting to read and laugh continuously at the misadventures of this group of monkeys. The rhyme and cadence of the words are engaging and suspenseful with payoffs of humor on every page. The illustrations by Lynn Munsinger are detailed and it is enjoyable catching every monkeys’ wild expressions amid the anarchy of their ever-growing disastrous situations.
FOR TEACHERS:
One Monkey Too Many is suitable for both reading instruction for emergent readers as well as being able for use as a counting book. There is more than one rhyme pattern for every new predicament of the monkeys yet the format and placement of the rhymes stay the same. As with books such as Five Little Ducks, this book incorporates a changing number of characters that children can learn to count from. Though unlike Five Little Ducks this book grows in numbers.
PERSONAL NOTE:
The pictures of this book are a perfect compliment to the very funny story of monkeys running amok. It’s a joy to spot new details or take notice of the animals’ expressions of shock and befuddlement. It’s a good lighthearted book that anyone will enjoy.