Laurence Anholt has been writing books for many years now and it's his wife Catherine who supplies the delightful pictures to go with the fantastic stories and wonderful rhymes. There are quite a number of books in this series about the cheeky chimps and this one won a gold award in the Smarties Book Awards in 2001.
***The Story***
The story starts with a hungry mother.
"Mumkey is hungry, but there are no bananas in the basket. 'Which little monkeys have eaten all the bananas?' she says.
Up jumps Chimp. Up jumps Zee. 'Ha, ha, ha!' 'Hee, hee, hee!'"
Mumkey takes the two naughty monkeys into Jungletown to buy some more bananas and tells them to stay close and to behave themselves. They decide to start playing hide and seek though and choose some big grey stones to hide behind. They then decide to hide in the basket that is sitting on top of one of the grey stones and all is well until it starts to wobble.
These grey stones are in fact three elephants and the little monkeys start to panic, as they are carried off on the largest elephant. There mother is confused when she comes back to find the stones gone and no sign of her children. She looks everywhere but no one has seen them and she is really upset.
Meanwhile the elephants have carried the monkeys deep into the jungle and when they stop to drink in the river, the basket falls in and floats away. Chimp and Zee are really scared but then Mumkey spots the basket and along with Papakey they fish it out to find their monkeys inside.
The story ends with the family eating all the bananas round a table and then Chimp and Zee cuddle up in their beds and go to sleep.
***The Illustrations***
The pictures in this book are very comical and take lots of different forms from cut out style to comic book style and are very busy with lots of things going on in the big scenes of the Jungletown areas. The writing is done in a childlike font but is very easy to read and it is often highlighted in a text box that is a lighter colour than the main page background.
***My Thoughts***
This is the first time that I've seen Chimp and Zee, which surprises me a bit, considering the amount of books my son gets from the local library. I didn't recognise the husband and wife team that wrote and illustrated this series of book either.
There are a lot of things that I like about this book. First of all it is extremely amusing, especially with the illustrations. The monkeys are very comically drawn and look extremely mischievous. The colours are bright and eye-catching and the text is simple and written in different ways throughout the book. Children seem to find this style exciting and it encourages them to read.
What stands out the most though, is the story itself, quite simply because it tells a tale of how children should do as they are told and keep close to their parents when they are out and about. It's an important message for a toddler to learn that there are many dangers out in the big bad world and although it might not be realistic to think that they will be carried off by an elephant, it shows them how sad they would be if they got lost from their mother.
Of course the book has to have a happy ending but the fact that this one shows the distress of both children and parents when they are separated, can only be a good thing, as I don't really think young children understand how worried a parent can get in these situations.
All too often I see parents letting their children out of their sight in big stores or supermarkets and it always worries me because even though no actual harm comes to that child, the panic that a child can feel when they realise that they can't see their parent is upsetting. I have had to help a child in that situation and the parent didn't seem that bothered, so maybe this is a useful book for some parents too.
I'm certainly going to be looking out for more books in this series and I'm sure my son will like them as much as he enjoyed this one.
***Other Chimp & Zee Books***
Chimp & Zee and the Big Storm Chimp & Zee's Noisy Book Monkey About With Chimp & Zee Chimp & Zee's Let's Go Chimp & Zee's Play Chimp & Zee's Animals Happy Birthday Chimp & Zee
This book is available in a few different versions. The paperback is retailed at £5.99 but can be found on Amazon for only £4.79. The hardback sells for £12.99 but is again available at Amazon for only £8.97. If you want to have a look at this story before you buy it then you can also view the e-book version free at the author's site www.anholt.co.uk.
Paperback ISBN No. 0711221219 Hardback ISBN No. 0711217610
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