A Monkey Among Us - Hardcover

PreS-K. "A monkey. / A monkey among us. / A monkey among a fungus. / A monkey, humongous." So goes the first of four bite-size nonsense poems in Horowitz's picture- book debut, each of which spins phonetic variations on a central theme. The fact that most preschoolers won't have a clue what "fungus" means doesn't really matter; the word collections are as hilarious to hear and say as their representations are to see, with a hippopotamus who "hops a bus" and a laughing giraffe making appearances. The parade of zoo animals concludes with a funny gag involving the impish monkey donning a not-too-scary monster costume (unfortunately, the accompanying text, "Monster! / Monster imposter? / It's only a monkey," disrupts the straightforward rhyming that has gone before). Although the verbal component is uneven, Horowitz's illustrations are consistently lively and inviting; his bold, graphic forms, evidently rendered in collage, bear a charming resemblance to primary-school art projects involving construction paper. Pitch this as a collection of original nursery rhymes with the modern sensibility of Dan Yaccarino or J. Otto Seibold. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved