Grumpy Monkey
Based solely on the name and the monkey’s expression on the cover, I thought we wouldn’t like this book. However, we wanted to read it because it seems to be part of the cultural lexicon with little ones. Despite our reservations, we really enjoyed the whole thing.
There’s a lot of great pieces to the story. The story gave a great opportunity to talk about emotions and how to react to being upset. Jim and Norman’s friendship is sweet. The pictures are great, well drawn. Grumpy Monkey’s name is clever, we love word plays. And in the end, the whole thing is just so relatable… and that’s the piece that really got us.
The only reason it is not a favorite is because my little one did not ask for this one more than once. My gut is because it’s about being grumpy, and my little one is truly drawn to happiness and cuteness, but I really don’t know for certain.
Cautions: I suppose reading to a little one you could be concerned about the grumpiness, but we thought it was actually a good opportunity to talk about emotions. So, no concerns from our end!
