Summer of the Monkeys

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.

Summer of the Monkeys

Somewhere within the first 80 pages of Summer of the Monkeys I fell in love. I adore the youthful language that Wilson Rawls used to create this tale. Summer of the Moneys is about a boy trying to catch 30 monkeys and reap a handsome reward. Rawls, author of Where the Red Fern Grows, plunges you head first into the action. Just when you realize that Jay Berry would be just the kind of boy who does find a group of primates, he does! Though this book can be a little slow to read the rustic language and intriguing plot keep you going. Overall, Summer of the Monkeys is an audacious story, for slightly more experienced readers, as the language can be fiddly. Could you catch a clan of witty apes? Follow Jay Berry and his faithful hound, Old Rowdy, and you will soon find out.

~Dr. Seuss