The Monkey People — Eric Metaxas

Gr 4-6-Prosperous villagers in an Amazon rain forest have everything they need; therefore, they become lazy and disregard their forefathers' traditions. Then a child brings an old man to the village who cuts monkeys out of leaves, monkeys that spring to life and do his bidding. The villagers request small chores at first, then bigger ones, until more and more monkeys are doing everything for them, including breathing, digesting, and complaining. At this point it is hard to distinguish the monkeys from the people or vice versa. The tale gets bogged down in places because of the characters' continuous and ever more preposterous demands. It is difficult to determine the audience for this Colombian folktale. Challenging words, e.g., antipathy, nuance, piqued, overwhelming, and phalanxes, are not even in the listening vocabulary of most young readers. Bryan's splendid cut-paper illustrations, however, help to hold readers' interest and keep the story lively. Dark silhouettes set on colored backgrounds, reminiscent of those in Marcia Brown's Shadow (Macmillan, 1986), lend a South American flavor to the text. Buy the book for the artwork alone if South American folklore is in demand.Betty Teague, Blythe Academy of Languages, Greenville, SC