The Five Little Monkeys Series
Most of us are familiar with the old nursery song, “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.” A popular choice for finger play with toddlers or jumping rope verses, it’s a silly countdown featuring a group of unruly monkeys who jump on the bed at night, one by one falling off and bumping their heads. After each bump, their frustrated mother phones the doctor, who naturally tells her to make her tribe stop wearing out their bed springs already.
Author Eileen Christlelow has taken the five little monkeys concept and turned it into an entire series for little kids. Her adorable title book, featuring fun and quirky art completed in inks and watercolors, really brings the old rhyme to life, with personified monkeys wearing clothes and behaving just like children would.
Christlelow shows us what led up to the actual jumping—a bath before bed (where all five monkeys are adorably crammed into the tub, along with their rubber duckie), dressing for bed (featuring five very unique sets of pajamas and little monkey hands working hard at putting them on), and some very crowded teeth-brushing. Without saying it yet, she creates an excitement, a feeling of anticipation, with the artwork alone. We just know that something funny is going to happen!
And boy does it. Every bout of jumping depicts sheer glee on the monkeys’ faces; every fall shows tears and treatment from Mama. The personification is maintained throughout the entire story, never wavering; it very well could be anyone’s children jumping around and falling off the bed!
Other books in the series include Five Little Monkeys Sitting in the Tree, Five Little Monkeys Wash the Car (we read this one the other day and my daughter really enjoyed it), Five Little Monkeys with Nothing to Do, and Five Little Monkeys Bake a Birthday Cake. Each is a fun read, with plenty of teaching opportunities (math, empathy, sequence of events, predicting events and pre-reading skills, etc.) and giggles to be had.
The author is known for her creativity in creating the series. For example, to create a dusty scene as the monkeys clean rugs, she used pencil sharpener shavings. After dumping them on the page, she blew them off to create the illusion of dust. Pretty inventive! And not only does Christlelow’s adorable series have a wide appeal through its books—it also has books on tape, monkey finger puppets, and other merchandise available.
