View source for Monkey's Surprise (Animals of the Rain Forest) by Various

{{infobox2 
|title= Monkey's Surprise (Animals of the Rain Forest)
|author= Various
|reviewer= Magda Healey
|genre=For Sharing 
|summary= Pretty standard baby board book with colourful jungle animals which introduces counting and numerals from 1 to 5.
|rating=3 
|buy= No
|borrow= Maybe
|pages=14 
|publisher= Harper Collins Children's Books
|date= March 2009
|isbn=978-0007285716 
|aznuk=000728571X
|aznus=0061450464
|cover=000728571X
}}

''Monkey's Surprise'' is an edutainment – a play and learn counting board book for young toddlers (in fact, it bears the '6 months +' legend on the cover). It's more of a toy (from the Animals of the Rainforest series)  than a book, really, as indicated by the Fisher Price logo which proudly takes the place of the authors' name on the front page.

Monkey needs to find bananas for his party. As he wanders through the jungle, he meets various animals who help him locate the fruit. As the bananas are found, they get counted, one by one (there are five in total, so it's not a long book).

The illustrations are colourful, cute but not nauseatingly so and have enough detail to engage but not as much as to overwhelm a baby or a young toddler.

The initial banana and other motifs on each page (e.g. the waves on the river, party confetti) are made of shiny, embossed foil for added appeal. The numbers 1,2, 3, 4 and 5 also appear on the pages as the bananas are gathered.

I am not convinced as to a need to teach counting (never mind the written numerals) to babies under twelve months old (of whom most are pre-verbal), but ''Monkey's Surprise''  can be easily used for 'find a banana' games with older babies, and then for introducing the first number words and counting to  younger toddlers. It might appeal to many children who are particularly fond of exotic animals.

This is a fairly typical offering in the baby book category: nothing particularly exciting, but a bright and colourful little book that some children will love, some will ignore and most might look at once or twice with some interest.

Not one to go out of your way to get, but might be worth a look in the library.

Thanks to the publishers for sending a copy to the BookBag.

[[The Selfish Crocodile Counting Book by Faustin Charles and Michael Terry|Selfish Crocodile]] is another jungle counting book, while [[Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell|Dear Zoo]] is an unmissable animal classic for toddlers.

{{amazontext|amazon=000728571X}}
{{amazonUStext|amazon=0061450464}}

{{commenthead}}