Colorful and playful. The illustrations are much better than the story. ( )

Monkeys and their elephant friend enjoy competing while playing with a nut. After discovering how to make art with wet mud, they learn that not everything in life needs to be competitive. Art is something to enjoy and express yourself.This book would work well to introduce an art lesson using body parts as a basic shape. ( )

New Orleans artist, Alex Beard, creates monkeys using his finger print as the body. The monkeys love games. They learn to paint and invent a new game monkey see monkey draw. Soon they are all arguing over who is the best artist. This is a good book about creativity and cooperation. This book could be paired with Ed Emberley's books. Using an idea stolen from another teacher a might be to use student's fingerprint to create a self-portrait. ( )

The surface story of monkeys playing games with a nut from a baobob tree and being afraid to retrieve it when it rolls into a cave goes oh-so-much deeper. It's a story about the joys of play; it's a story about art and creating art for art's sake, not for competing to see whose art is best--which makes readers think about the dangers of competition. It's a story about bonding, and it's a story of the fear of the unknown. Beard, who has his studio in New Orleans, used his own and his child's fingerprints, handprints, and footprints to create the art. All the more lovely that his own process echoes the very message of the book. ( )