New Reviews for QUICK, LITTLE MONKEY!

Quick, Little Monkey! (on shelves in March 2016) got two lovely reviews last week!

Kirkus Reviews says:

Clinging to her father’s back, Little Monkey travels safely across jungle treetops until one day she’s distracted and tumbles downward to the dark forest floor, where hungry predators lurk. Rhythmic text describes how Little Monkey loves “to fly” from “vine to vine” and “branch to branch,” holding tightly to her Papa’s fur as he carries her “high and safe and quick in the bright, loud, green world.” When Papa warns Little Monkey to hide on a tree branch and stay still, she can’t resist reaching out for a butterfly and slips “down into a quiet dark.” Remembering Papa’s advice to hide, keep still, and hold tight, Little Monkey barely escapes a menacing ocelot by climbing up to a “coiled and curved” vine that turns out to be a sinister boa. Fortunately, Papa arrives in the nick of time. Bold pencil lines, atmospheric watercolor washes in bright greens, browns, and yellows, and double-page spreads of Little Monkey’s vertical descent and Papa’s horizontal flights perfectly convey the drama and energy of jungle life. Exaggerated close-ups of Little Monkey’s face capture her range of emotions, from exuberant joy as she rides on Papa’s back to paralyzing terror as she faces the unknown. Exciting jungle high jinks starring one adorable little monkey and her protective Papa.

And Publishers Weekly says:

As a baby pygmy marmoset rides on her father’s back, he shows her how to “read” the jungle landscape for predators—the shadow of wings above, the sound of “soft footsteps” on the ground below—and to stay safe. “Hide here” Papa tells her. “Keep still.” When Little Monkey can’t resist reaching for a butterfly, she tumbles away from Papa, “down into a quiet dark of slow roots and still earth and cold shadow,” and into some very dangerous territory. But Little Monkey remembers her lessons and manages to make her way back to Papa. The wide-eyed primate heroine is cute and plucky, and Judge’s ( Good Morning to Me! ) woodsy-toned watercolors create moments of high drama by playing up the difference in scale between the tiny marmoset and the rest of the world (in one scene, she’s dwarfed by the huge eyes of a hungry ocelot)…. It’s an evocative story of survival of the itty-bittiest. Ages 3–7.

An early Christmas present to a happy author!