The Monkey People

by Eric Metaxas

The people in a village in the Amazon rain forest grow so lazy that they eagerly allow a strange man to create monkeys from leaves to do everything for them

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

In a decidedly eclectic career, Eric Metaxas has written for VeggieTales, Chuck Colson, Rabbit Ears Productions and the New York Times, four things not ordinarily in the same sentence. He is a best-selling author whose biographies, children’s books, and works of popular apologetics have been translated into more than 25 languages.

Reviews

[Hannah]

A story of a people who got lazy and forgot how to work hard. They moved around the lake to avoid fixing anything. They were laying in their hammocks when they noticed white clouds appearing but they were too lazy to investigate. So they send a child up a tree to check and he sees a man with a pipe making the clouds. The man was cutting monkeys out of banana leaves. The man shows them that their work could be done by the monkeys and they wouldn't have to do any work. The lazy people become even lazier and do nothing but sit in their hammocks. The monkey's eventually do everything the people should do and take over their town. The little boy from the beginning of the book eventually becomes a new leaf man at the end of the book. This book would be good to teach a lesson about working hard and not being lazy

[Kiersten Koch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This tale is about the laziness of a village of people, and their strategy to find out about a man who was sending smoke up into the air across the lake. The boy they sent up in the tree to see what the smoke was coming from brought the man back, and he described that he cut monkeys out of leaves who could do tasks for the villagers. The monkeys began doing all the tasks for the villagers while they sat around. It got to the point that it was hard to tell who was a villager and who was a monkey, and it became so overran that the boy escaped to a new village where monkeys did not live. This book can be used to teach children that you will always want something, and sometimes not doing things yourself can be worse than having someone do it for you.

[Sierra Dirksen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is about a tribe of people that got curious about what was in the trees and decided to send someone up the trees to find out what they were seeing in the distance. They found out it was an old puffing smoke and making monkeys out of leaves. These monkeys where magic and came to life, and they used these monkeys as servants. However, they got too greedy and the monkeys rebelled. This story was strange from beginning to end and the picture were creepy. I would not recommend reading it to a small child.

[Gabrielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations in this book are a little creepy! The characters are almost like Halloween characters. The book starts out by saying there are a lot of lazy people in the village. One day a man comes to the village and has creates monkeys to do everything for the people. The people in the village become even lazier. This would be a great book when teaching children not to take advantage of the things/people they have in life.

[Megan Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was really well done because it emphasized just how frustrating constant complaining can be. This book talks about a group of villagers who are exceptionally lazy. An old man comes along and cuts out leaves that turn into worker monkeys. The villagers constantly complain, and by the end of the story both the humans and the monkeys are complaining about complaining. I think this book would be perfect for a lesson on complaining and hard work.

[Jordan Singleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one that I remembered from my childhood but could never find until today. It clearly made an impression on me before, but it feels even more relevant today with all the conveniences of modern technology.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this because it was narrated by one of my favourite actors, Raul Julia, who alas didn't get to record more audiobooks. Fun story :-)

[Brittany Cullen]

I really enjoyed this tale because it was about how lazy a village of humans are and how this old man creates monkeys out of leaves and they come to life. the people take advantage of the monkeys and become really really lazy and quit doing everything for themselves. This is a great story on not to take advantage of things or people because you will become really lazy and eventually wont do anything productive with your life.

[Rachel Otting]

These lazy people lived in a village and they made it a complete dump. They saw smoke and had the smallest child climb to the highest tree and see what it was. The child saw a man cutting strange shapes into leaves. Some of the villagers went to check out this man. He was cutting out monkeys who would come to life. The villagers had the man cut out monkeys to do everything for them. The little boy escaped the village and cut out this story in the leaves.

[Alex]

This book is about a village with all kinds of lazy people in it who eventually discover a man who cuts out monkey figures from leaves, and then the monkeys will do whatever the people want them to do. This eventually turns into mass chaos and the monkeys and the people are basically the exact same.

[Dalton Dettbarn]

I thought this was okay.

[T A D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably a cristism of welfare but I love it at a surface-level