A MONKEY AMONG US
by Dave Horowitz & illustrated by Dave Horowitz
Rambunctious wordplay and big, stylized, Chris Raschka–like illustrations are the order of the day in this jazzy debut. Accompanied by just a few big words per spread, a rubber-limbed monkey, hippo, and giraffe use a dapper gent with a bowler and small mustache as a foil in a variety of minimally rendered settings: “A hippopotamus. / A hippopotamus hops a bus . . . / all the way to Hippotropolis. / A hippopotamus on top of us.” The art and text both are, or are made to look like, construction-paper collages, with an occasional bit of crayon work added; like the captions, the bright colors play off each other in lively, spontaneous ways. A brief but engaging showcase, not too abstract for younger listeners and viewers to enjoy. (Picture book. 4-6)