THE MONKEY WITH A BRIGHT BLUE BOTTOM

How did the jungle animals get to be so colorful? Sitting in a tree, a young monkey notices the beautiful, bright colors of the birds flying all around him, and wonders why all the animals (himself included) are so drab—all, in fact, are “as dull as an elephant’s poo.” Serendipitously, monkey spies a paintbox near a patch of rushes; someone must be painting the birds! Monkey decides to paint the animals too, but not without some difficulties. He clumsily slaps paint on the frogs and a snake before trying the sleeping leopard. Leopard’s bright yellow is adorned with black spots that fall from the paintbox as monkey shins up a tree. He also paints brown squares on the giraffe, stripes on the zebra and big white circles around the eyes of the bear. But the animals get their revenge...see the book’s title! Smallman writes in crisp, bouncy verse and lets the story unfold in stages so young readers can gleefully anticipate every twist. Schon’s pictures are appropriately bright. Ontologically obscure (where did that paintbox come from, anyway?), but still good fun. (Picture book. 4-7)