Walter Dean Myers is best known for his young adult novels, beginning in 1975 with Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Stuff, including the dramatic war story, Fallen Angels. Clearly he has earned the distinction he enjoys in that field. It's too bad, however, that this illustrated story for children is not better known. It is delightful!

My understanding is that Myers came up with the story to entertain his own son on a long overseas air flight. Certainly, it has all the characteristics that make many old folktales so engaging for children: repetition, parallelism, exaggeration, a surprise ending, and the triumph of the shrewd little guy over a big bully. Mr. Monkey belongs in the same family as Bre'r Rabbit in the well-loved tar-baby story, or Anansi the spider--proud, shrewd, sly, but an underdog. Myers tells his story in an authentic dialect but in cleverly humorous language. "One day Monkey he thinking how he big stuff. He walking around with nose in air. Got flower in hair. He no see Gotcha Bird come fly low near ginger plant." And so the story begins. With one trick after another Monkey keeps on saving himself from being gobbled up by the Gotcha bird, until finally . . . but you have to read the story to find that out.

Leslie Morrill's illustrations are bright and energetic, but it's the story-telling and language that make this book so much fun to read to children--whether a child on your lap, a group around your feet, or a whole class in a crowded room.

The book is long out of print, but there are currently about 8-10 copies available over ABE, priced from $2.78 to $190.65. If you want a great read-aloud book for young children, grab one of them.