Module 6: Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett (SLIS 5420 review)

Summary: A little girl and her favorite stuffed animal, a monkey, have fun pretending to be different animals. At the end of a long day of pretending, they take a well-deserved nap.

Citation: Gravett, E. (2008). Monkey and me. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Impression: I enjoyed this book immensely because of its interactive elements and emphasis on imagination. For example, there is a chunk of text that repeats throughout the book, which will help children read along with the story. Also, there are plenty of opportunities to encourage kids to user their imagination and pretend along with the book. As an adult reads the story to a child, they could ask them to guess which animal the little girl and monkey are pretending to be. After they turn the page and reveal the answer, they could have the child pretend to be that animals as well. Gravett’s illustrations are sweet and endearing. They have a fuzzy quality and she uses muted colors, but they still convey the energy and joy of the little girl as she plays with the monkey.

Review:
Kirkus:
"Monkey and me, / Monkey and me, / Monkey and me, / We went to see, / We went to see some … / PENGUINS!" An ebullient little girl plays with her toy monkey, imagining visits to penguins, kangaroos and monkeys, of course, among others in this joyous tribute to the preschooler's imagination. The bouncy text never varies, except for the payoff line, which is set up by a spread of the two friends' playing at animal imitations. Gravett's smudgy pencil-and-watercolor vignettes feature a ponytailed little girl in a skirt and Velcro sneakers, her rumpled red tights and red-and-white striped shirt (which flops down, revealing her belly button as she hangs upside-down like a bat) the only bright spots in otherwise gray-and-sepia sketches. The broadly smiling tot needs no more color, her complete absorption in her play rendered with happy abandon. These vignettes dance across the lead-in spread; turn the page, and "BATS!" flap, "ELEPHANTS!" clomp. Playfully set typography finishes off this fizzy offering, which is perfectly in tune with the way a child's imagination and a beloved toy are all the ingredients needed for happiness.

(2008, February). [Review of the book Monkey and Me, by E. Gravett]. Kirkus Reviews, 76(3), 147. Retrieved from http://www.kirkusreviews.com/

Use in library: Monkey and Me is ideal for storytime. As mentioned above, there are so many ways to make the story interactive. A musically-inclined librarian could even make the words of the book into a song to sing with the children.