The Jungle Adventures of Chimpoo is a children's story/picture
book about a family of monkeys that live in the jungles of India - Papa
Monkey, Mommy Monkey, and their two sons, Chimpoo and Aichoo. The
family lives in the trees and enjoys a normal monkey family life.
But one day, Papa Monkey went out looking for food, and never came
home. Mommy Monkey became worried and left little Aichoo in the
care of his brother, Chimpoo, while she went to look for Papa.
When she came home later, Chimpoo overheard her telling the neighbors
that Papa had been captured by hunters and was being held in a
village. Chimpoo bravely decides that as the oldest boy monkey,
he needs to go and rescue his father from the village. He waits
until everyone is asleep, and then leaves the house to rescue his
Papa, not really having a plan in mind of how he will go about
doing so. On his way, he runs into Thinking Eyes, the owl, who
befriends the little monkey and helps him devise a plan to rescue
his father.
The story of Chimpoo is cute, and the illustrations are entertaining,
but I didn't really care for the story. The monkeys are personified
to a level that is not believable, making the point of the story
unclear. The behavior of the monkeys in the book is human, not
monkey-like, and yet there is not really a moral to the story,
such as exists in Aesop's Fables or other stories where animals
take on human characteristics. The story doesn't teach anything
about monkeys, as monkeys do not act in the ways described in the
story. So, at the end of the story, I was left wondering about
the point of the book. It's a cute story, and would be enjoyable
for children, particularly children who like monkeys, but I was
a bit disappointed in the book.
Product Review by Kim Kargbo, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine,
LLC, December 2011
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