Title: Funky Little Monkey
Author: Debbie Buttar
Illustrator: Christopher Davis
Publisher: GMEC Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9794302-5-1
“He dances in the morning and he dances in the night. He dances on roller skates – oh what a sight! Unlike the others, this active monkey does not jump or swing. His love of dance is clearly his thing!” Debbie Buttar writes in her children’s book, Funky Little Monkey.
This unnumbered eighteen-page oversized hardbound targets children ages four to eight years old. With no extremely scary or awkward scenes, the book is about being happy with yourself, no matter what others think of you.
The full-page, full-color illustrations by Davis are a combination of air brush and paint with white designated areas for the written storyline in a black easy-to-read font. It appears a high gloss quality paper is used.
In this story that promotes individuality, Little Monkey is different than most of the other monkeys. Instead of swinging from trees and jumping around, he loves to dance. He dances while roller skating; he dances night and day. He shakes and hustles as he dances and does not care what others think of him.
There is Polar Bear who thinks Little Monkey is a fool, Zebra who asks what he is doing, a fat possum who thinks it is far out, and other animals that he encounters who question why he is not like a normal monkey. When a pink pig suggests going to Flamingo’s dance school, the monkey is excited. He visits the class and does a disco dance, not tap, jazz, jig, waltz, belly dance, or tango. Dancing makes the little animal extremely happy.
While the tale is told in rhyme, it teaches young ones it is acceptable to dance at one’s own tune and be different. Although it does not reiterate the concept of being an individual, the idea is throughout the book.
Author Buttar has written three children’s books with one winning the 2009 Moonbeam Silver Medal Award. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and children. Illustrator Davis has done the artwork for Buttar’s books; no other biographical information is given. A portion of the proceeds from this book are donated to the AMESPA Research and Treatment Foundation.
Thanks to Jenkins Group for furnishing this complimentary book in exchange for a review based on the reviewer’s honest opinion.
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GRAMMARLY was used to check for errors in this review.
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