I said I would write a post about a children’s book linked to the nickname we have chosen for each child.  Next up is monkey.  Our monkey is six, and it wasn’t hard to choose a book to write about for this one.  We have been reading Monkey Puzzle to our two oldest boys since they were very small, and now the younger ones love it too.  Another creation of the brilliant Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, it is a delightful combination of a simple and satisfying story, wonderful rhyming prose and detailed and funny illustrations.

The story starts with a monkey who has lost his mum, and a butterfly tries to help him find her, but she keeps on getting it wrong.  After she has suggested many different animals to the monkey, he replies in frustration: “Butterfly, butterfly, can’t you see? None of these creatures looks like me!” Butterfly explains that she didn’t know the monkey’s mum would look like him, because “…None of my babies looks like me.”  After this misunderstanding is cleared up, she leads him to his dad who takes him home to his mum.