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