Lucky Monkey, Unlucky Monkey

January 7, 2008
At first glance, Ed and Ted seem cut from the same cloth: they are both “thinking, speaking, fully clothed, house-dwelling monkeys.” But Ed is a lucky monkey. When he meets a strange dog, it is friendly and playful; when he finds a treasure chest in the woods, an elf praises him. Ted, however, is unlucky. The dog he encounters chases him right into a gang of even fiercer animals, and a violent troll accuses him of stealing his treasure chest, forcing Ted to take refuge in a swamp. Kaczman’s (A Bird and His Worm
) acrylic paintings, set up as pairs of tableaux—one idyllic, the other gloomy—feature nattily attired animals and give the book the feel of a wry, winking primer. At the bottom of several pages, woodland creatures offer such reality-check observations as: “In children’s stories, elves often live in mushrooms.... This does not quite make sense if one thinks about it. A mushroom would actually be a rather unpleasant place to live, because mushrooms are damp and mushy inside.” By mirroring each monkey’s adventures in both text and art, Kaczman plays up the contrast as the monkeys’ fortunes continue to diverge over the course of the day. An epilogue reveals luck’s fleeting nature by switching the monkeys’ fates the following morning. A well-executed exercise in irony, this seems better aimed to hipster parents than to kids. Ages 4-8.

March 1, 2008
PreS-This didactic story uses a simplistic plot to hammer home the theme that your outlook on life will affect the type of day you will have. The parallel tales of two "thinking, speaking, fully clothed, house-dwelling monkeys" are told side-by-side in six short chapters illustrated with stylized, acrylic pictures. Ed wakes up to a sunny day, is followed by friendly critters, finds a treasure, and is made an honorary king by some happy woodland elves before returning home. Meanwhile, Ted is greeted by clouds, creepy bugs, and slimy slugs; chased by several angry animals; finds a treasure owned by a troll who wants to eat him; jumps into a mucky swamp to avoid him; and returns home in shabby, torn clothes. But on the last page, their fates appear to change as Ed expects a bad day and Ted decides it will be a good day. The rather pedestrian plot is accompanied by boxed commentary in tiny print that is distracting. The one-dimensional story and stilted drawings are unlikely to hold a child's interest. Stick with Aesop's Fables if you are looking for stories with a moral."Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2008
Kaczman, author of A Bird and His Worm (2002), has createda story about luck without mentioning luck at all. During the course of a day, one monkey experiences pleasant things (playful dogs, treasure, happy elves), while another encounters snarling dogs, mean forest animals, and an angrytroll.Providing helpful asides are good-natured woodland creatures, who warn children about such things asplaying with strange dogs or explaining aboutthe elves that live in mushrooms. The story ends cleverly, reversing themonkeys experiences so each critter gets to have some fun, whilereinforcing the idea that luck comes and goes. The watercolor-and-ink art effectively uses color to establish the contrast in luck. Its easy to see the emotion on the animals disproportionately large faces, so this may work well for group storytimes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2008
In parallel stories on facing pages, monkeys Ed and Ted greet their very different days (Ed's is sunny, Ted's gloomy) with very different attitudes, and their respective adventures reflect that. This works, and the acrylic tableaux amusingly contrast the monkeys' divergent experiences, but the blocky comments of various animals appearing on the bottom of many pages are a distraction.

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)