Monkeys

Children's Literature - Marcie Flinchum Atkins

Exquisite photography appears throughout the books in this "Living Wild" series. The book opens with a sensory description of the rainforest where pygmy marmosets live. Monkey species are divided into two categories—old world monkeys and new world monkeys. All are addressed in this book. A world map indicates where the different types of monkeys live on the globe. The text is heavy and fully informative about all of the different aspects of monkeys, but the text is broken up by photographs on every page and sidebars with little snippets of information that readers would find interesting. This book, however, does not just address the factual science of monkeys. It also addresses how monkeys are portrayed in cultures all over the world. Cultures that revere and worship the monkey are described. Monkeys that have appeared in various stories, films, and traveled to space are also featured. A poem about monkeys from Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book is included in full, as is a folktale about monkey spirits from Ghana. Protecting monkey habitats and protecting them from unethical medical research is also addressed and gives readers an idea of how humans are dependent on monkeys. A glossary is featured that defines all bold-faced words from the text. A bibliography and index are also included. This book would make an excellent reference book to feature in school and public libraries. Reviewer: Marcie Flinchum Atkins