The Story of the Teasing Monkey

by Helen Bannerman

The Story of The Teasing Monkey by Helen Bannerman First published in 1907

Genres: Childrens

142 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1907

About the author

Helen Bannerman (born Brodie Cowan Watson) was the Scottish author of a number of children's books, the most famous being Little Black Sambo. She was born in Edinburgh and, because women were not admitted as students into British Universities, she sat external examinations set by the University of St. Andrews and attained the qualification of LLA. She lived for a good proportion of her life in India, where her husband was an officer in the Indian Medical Service.

The heroes of many of her books are recognizably south Indian or Tamil children from the illustrations. However, despite the plots having no really racist overtones and usually celebrating the intelligence and ingenuity of the children, the name Sambo has become a slur against people of colour and the books have often been banned or censored. As a result of this controversy, a politically correct version co-authored by Fred Marcellino, The Story of Little Babaji, changed the names of the main characters.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's written for kids and its really old. And its not really very good by any measure either.

[Becky Cope · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is an very very old book - illustrations are sweet. It is for very young children to babies. I respect this as the paving ways or building blocks for children books we have today