Night Monkey, Day Monkey by Julia Donaldson and Lucy Richards
| Night Monkey, Day Monkey by Julia Donaldson and Lucy Richards | |
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| Category: Children's Rhymes and Verse | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: Opposites attract. The end. A lovely picture book, perfect for reading and laughing over. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 26 | Date: June 2016 |
| Publisher: Egmont | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 9781405283342 | |
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A night monkey should only be awake in the night. A day monkey should only be awake in the day. They should never have to experience the 'wrong' side of their routine. But what happens when they each in turn wake the other up, and night monkey has to suffer the brightness of day, and the day monkey the spooky life without sunlight? Well this lovely book is what happens – proof positive that despite the old adage, polar opposites can be a twain that can meet – and just about get along perfectly well, thank you.
I have to admit to stumbling big time with this book – which is rich for a volume consisting of not more than a dozen sheets, and about the same number of Limerick-styled verses. It took far too many pages for me to work out that the night monkey was the paler of the two – tufty topknot, perky features, and star in her hair. I had assumed the sense of night and day, light and dark, also reached the characters, and the day monkey was blonde. That corrected in my mind, I could enjoy it as any young person would.
And so would their attendant adult. This is for those perhaps choosing their own reading but not bringing it all to speech perfectly accurately. The bounce of the rhyming scheme and metre is perfect, the examples each monkey gives in turn for finding fault with the world when they're the fish-out-the-water are great, and the end will leave a beaming grin on anyone. The artwork is flawless, the moral delightful, and the whole just one more instance of the genius of Julia Donaldson. You can reprint this til the cows come home – I first knew it by chance as a large-format paperback, but this edition is a great, smaller, board book, and the brilliant gloss of the card leaves makes the art work look even more luxurious. It really is one to savour.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
Squishy McFluff: Seaside Rescue! by Pip Jones will sustain the young's interest in rhyming books for a while further. Before then, Life is Magic by Meg McLaren is a great book about the magic of friendship.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Night Monkey, Day Monkey by Julia Donaldson and Lucy Richards at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Night Monkey, Day Monkey by Julia Donaldson and Lucy Richards at Amazon.com.
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