Naughty Little Monkeys

by Jim Aylesworth, Henry Cole (Illustrator)

Overview

What happens when you leave twenty-six little monkeys home alone? Lots of monkey business, that’s what! The charming chimps in this book, with names and misbehaviors to match each letter of the alphabet, cause all kinds of trouble when Mom and Dad go out. Jim Aylesworth’s rollicking rhyming text and Henry Cole’s irresistibly mischievous monkeys teach thealphabet with unmatched exuberance, from Andy . . . all the way to Zelda!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780142405628
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	03/02/2006
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	453,511
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 12.00(h) x 0.14(d)
Lexile:	NP (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Jim Aylesworth enjoys infusing his children's stories with great rhythms, cadences, and rhymes. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Aylesworth attended college at Miami University in Ohio before beginning a career as a stockbroker. However, Aylesworth preferred teaching and enrolled in a graduate elementary education program at Concordia College in Illinois. From there, he discovered a love of writing children’s books. His well-loved books include The Gingerbread Man; Cock-a-doodle-doo, Creak, Pop-pop, Moo; and My Grandfather’s Coat. 

Henry Cole has written and illustrated a dozen books and has illustrated dozens more! Some of his titles include Eddie the Bully, Tubby the Tuba (by Paul Tripp) and Little Bo in London (by Julie Andrews Edwards).

Henry Cole lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Editorial Reviews

"These 26 siblings' mischievous elan will doubtless inspire monkeyshines on the part of readers," said PW. Ages 3-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

PreS-Gr 2-Aylesworth relates a tale of mischief told through the letters of the alphabet in four lines of rhymed verse. Twenty-six naughty little monkeys engage in wild antics when their human parents unwisely leave them alone one evening. Andy flies paper airplanes, Brooke jumps on the bed, and Carla eats chocolate cake. Their behavior grows steadily more boisterous as Xavier bangs his xylophone and Yates breaks a street lamp with his yo-yo. The parents arrive home in time to send the monkeys to bed and seemingly threaten to send them away. However, on the last page, the whole family is shown on an outing at the zoo. Many of the verses are fun and clever, but others read awkwardly. The exuberant illustrations override the flaws in the text. On full-page spreads of various rooms in the house, Cole vividly sets the stage for the expressively animated creatures to wreak havoc. While this is not a core title, such as Aylesworth's similarly mischievous Old Black Fly (Holt, 1995) or Eileen Christelow's Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed (Clarion, 1989), it will provide reading-aloud pleasure.-Rachel G. Payne, New York Public Library Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Exuberantly naughty monkeys abound in this energetic alphabet book. The rhyming text begins as the human parents of the 26 young monkeys head out for the evening. Each monkey makes trouble, starting with one tossing a paper airplane, the next jumping on the bed, sneaking chocolate cake, and so on. The words representing the letters of the alphabet (airplane, bed, cake, etc.) are in bold, colored type, helping those just learning their letters. The full-bleed illustrations in deep, vibrant colors are a riotous activity of monkey mischief; the comic rhymes add appropriate narration. Anyone who's ever been naughty will recognize the emotion conveyed on the monkey's little faces as they hide under the covers when their parents get home: being naughty was SO much fun, but now they're a little worried about the consequences. Not to fear, they simply go off to the zoo in the morning, just as young readers go to school. (Picture book. 4-6)

Kirkus Reviews