So Say The Little Monkeys

by Nancy Van Laan, Yumi Heo (Illustrator)

A rhyming retelling of an Indian folktale from Brazil recounts the plight of the tiny, playful monkeys who have too much fun during the day to build a shelter to protect them from the dangers of the night.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, Fiction, Geography, Brazil, Folk Tales

40 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1997

About the author

Nancy Van Laan was born in Baton Rouge, La. Her father was a colonel in the US Air Force, and the family moved frequently as Van Laan was growing up. She began making up stories to pass the time on long car trips. Although Van Laan had a learning disability, she loved to read. She began drawing and writing poetry as a child and enjoyed illustrating her own stories. Van Laan also loved ballet and began taking lessons at the age of nine. By age seventeen, she had her own ballet company in Birmingham that performed on a weekly program broadcast on Alabama Educational TV (now Alabama Public Television). Van Laan’s dancing career ended after an injury she sustained as a student at Sullins College in Bristol, Va. After completing her AA degree at Sullins, she enrolled at the University of Alabama, earning her BA in radio and television in 1961.

Van Laan moved to New York after college. She worked briefly at an advertising company and then joined ABC-TV where she worked as a network censor from 1962 to 1966. Van Laan began writing at this time and also studied art. After her first two children were born, she resigned from ABC and began painting professionally, creating murals for schools and private clients. She earned an MFA in theater from Rutgers University in 1979 and wrote two plays which were performed regionally. Van Laan moved to eastern Pennsylvania where she taught English at a private boarding school from 1984 to 1989. She also taught creative writing at Rutgers from 1986 to 1989. Van Laan published her first book, The Big Fat Worm, in 1987. Two years later, she left teaching to write full time. Since then, Van Laan has published over two dozen books. One of these, Rainbow Crow, was featured on the PBS television series Reading Rainbow. Van Laan lives and writes in Doylestown, Pa.

Reviews

[La Tonya Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on a tale from the Brazilian rain forest about blackmouth monkeys. The lesson learned don't put off tommorrow what you can do today. The monkeys have fun all day. But, at night must sleep up thorny, thorny trees. Because they did not build a home during the day instead they opted to have fun.

Quote:
As they climb tall trees full of sharp, sharp thorns, their tiny black mouths shriek, "OW OW OW!"

JUMP, JABBA JABBA,
RUN, JABBA JABBA,
SLIDE, JABBA JABBA,
Tiny, tiny monkey having fun!

Comes the rain, PLINKA PLINKA.
Comes the wind, WOOYA WOOYA.
"EEEYI!" cry the monkeys.
"It's c-cold out here!"

[Jami · Rating 5 out of 5]

My toddler and baby both love this book! It Is in a great sing song voice and is so fun to read. We keep checking this out from the library; time to buy our own copy!

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book has the best read aloud cadence of any childrens book. And also great sound effects.

[Makenna Teague]

A rhyming retelling of an Indian folktale from Brazil about tiny, playful monkeys and why they have no place to call home.

[Summer D Clemenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

So Say the Little Monkeys by Nancy Van Laan is a fun story based on a story the Indians in Brazil made up to describe the fun-loving Blackmouth Monkeys that live in the tall palm trees along the Rio Negro. Every day the monkeys play in the sun and every night they wish they had made a proper shelter when the rain and wind comes. But each new day, they quickly become distracted from their attempts at work by the adventures to be had.

This musical type book is fun and engaging. The illustrations by Yumi Heo are simple, yet beautiful. This is a great story time book!

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to read to K/1 but nothing super substantial.

[Kest Schwartzman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect read aloud for the toddler who doesn't need to sleep anytime soon.

[Brooke Huneycutt]

little monkeys have no place to call home this is retelling a South African folktale.

[The Campbell Family · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun one to read out loud!!

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kids loved the rhythm of this book and laughed at the antics of the silly monkeys. We read this for a South American unit.

[IRIFF · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my son's current favorite. He is 11 months old and we checked it out of the library. He asks to read it every day, several times a day, and we have so much fun every time! It's a blast to read out loud, to exaggerate the swinging and the singing, and to interact with each other. My husband is probably tired of it, but my son can't get enough and I love it. We'll be sad when we have to return the book and give other kids a chance to enjoy it, but someone has a birthday in three weeks and I know just what to get for him!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun book with an amazing lesson! I would definitely use this book in helping my students realize that procrastinating has its consequences. These fun loving monkeys are just being playful, but in the end it leads to disaster. This was a good read even at my age. It's so easy to wait until tomorrow to do things, but why wait until tomorrow? We have today! This could also be a good book for making predictions. Students can predict what will happen due to the decisions the monkeys make.

[Adriana Fernández-Guillén · Rating 5 out of 5]

This folktale was about the monkeys in the amazon and I found a good lesson behind it while I was reading it to my son. I liked the hidden message in this book about procrastinating in a way for children to understand how things will not get better without the will power of one to do what has to be done. Reading this book myself made me realize my stance as a student if I do procrastinate I will be a monkey in the rain every day until one day I realize I need to do everything on time.

[Agnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Now each tired monkey
is wishing for a bed -
'We should have built a house,
just like we said!'"
Lots of JABBA JABBA repetitive phrazes and simple illustrations (monkeys look a little like fleas?!).

[Bekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cute tale of a type of monkey that lives along the Rio Negro in Brazil. At the front of the book the author gives the cultural background that makes the book all that much cooler, but my kids just loved how all the words sound!

[Abbi Kraus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this book five stars because it is a good example of why people should not procrastinate just because they can. I like the onomatopoeia in the book as well as the fun feeling that you get when reading this book!

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really like this one. Not my kind of illustrations and I wasn't fond of the story. I think it's worth a look though, because everyone has different tastes. Zoe seemed to enjoy it & she was who I was reading it for anyway ;o)

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute. Moral of the story procrastination doesn't pay, but play does.

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a child older than 2 years old.

[Devonarmstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a great book to read to younger children.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rhyming retelling of an Indian folktale from Brazil about tiny, playful monkeys and why they have no place to call home (Tomorrow Monkeys)

[Alexandria Hiam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rhyming retelling of an Indian folktale from Brazil about tiny, playful monkeys and why they have no place to call home (Tomorrow Monkeys)

[Kayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the rhythm of the language in this story. It would be great in a story time.

[Suzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very poetic read aloud.