A couple of weeks ago, I partook in a bookclub that had an affinity for outdoorsy books- the club had just completed My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George, which was awful. But I never had dreamed that they would select the horrendous book they did next.I knew that I would hate Summer of the Monkeys purely from the cover. Firstly, the title is dreary and boring. Second, the picture shows a boy with a conceited face peering over a grassy hill to a tree hollow where a bunch of monkeys are frolicking. A bluetick hound is pawing the dirt by the pinch-faced boy.
I think this cover basically tells what this whole books is about: this boy, Jay Berry, trying to catch some monkeys. The monkeys escaped from a circus, and there is a reward of two dollars per monkey and one hundred dollars for the big chimpanzee, Jimbo. Jimbo is uncommonly smart, and makes Jay Berry look like an idiot a good percentage of the time by attacking him, stealing his britches, getting him drunk, and a bunch of ridiculous stuff like that.
Also, if Jay Berry even catches the monkeys, he has to decide if he wants to heal his disabled sister, Daisy, who has a twisted leg, or if he wants to get a pony and .22 rifle. There is an obvious choice, which he predictably takes.
There is also a lot of rubbish added about a fairy circle.
This book is horrendous, boring, and blandly written. Do not read it.
I'm with you honey. The only book I have read that is almost as bad as this book is My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (see my bookreview). But seriously? A bunch of mushrooms grow in a circle so we get all excited about ponies, monkeys, guns, and crippled legs? I don't think so. I especially agree with you about the monkey's making him look like a complete idiot. This book was two-hundred-eighty-eight pages too long.
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