Little Monkey's One Safe Place

by Richard Edwards, Susan Winter (Illustrator)

When Little Monkey is frightened by the storm, he runs to his mother’s side. “Don’t worry,” she says. “There is always one safe place.” But when he’s left all alone, Little Monkey doesn’t know where to find that place. He searches all through the jungle — in a nest, on an island, in a cave — but none of the places are the right place. Tired, scared, and sad, Little Monkey wonders if he’ll ever find his one safe place ever again.

Susan Winter’s lovely watercolor illustrations complement the reassuring, lyrical text, making this an ideal bedtime read.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Spanish Literature

32 pages, Hardcover

First published November 16, 2005

About the author

Richard Edwards was born in Tonbridge, Kent, and has since lived in Italy, France and Spain. He is an acclaimed writer for children and has written over 20 picture books and books of poetry for children. He divides his time between Edinburgh and Barcelona.

Reviews

[Dane Cobain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bon!

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up from my local library as it was bilingual French and English. However, I was a bit disappointed by the English translation as I noticed that it did not match the French entirely. For example the scene with the crocodile:
French:
'mais un crocodile géant sort de l'eau en faisant claquer son énorme bouche, et chasse Petit Singe qui se réfugie tres vite sur le bord de la rivière.'

English:
'But a big green crocodile came snapping and chased him back to the bank.'

The English translation leaves out the big mouth; in French it doesn't say he's green.

So it doesn't feel like a true translation and doesn't fully help with my main goal of improving my French if I have to correct or add to the translation.

[Story · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorites. It's such an innocent story and the illustrations make it truly come to life. Highly recommend

[Christy Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this at the library sale for my nephew. It's about little monkey that gets scared and his mom tells him he's always got one safe place and he sets out to find it. Really loved it.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found myself giving up on making sense of Polish, but it was still a very cute story.

[Faye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little Monkey is a typical young cub who climbs, swings and hangs from branches and trees, playing all day. One night there is a terrible storm and it scares him out of the trees and into his mother's arms. She sooths her Little Monkey and reminds him that he always has a safe place to go... but where? Little Monkey searches high and low for it but struggles to find this safe place which his mother told him about... Will he work it out?

This bilingual picture book is a useful resource which teachers of EYFS, KS1 or KS2 teachers could use to help deliver MFL (Spanish). It translates the English story into Spanish on each page and illustrates words with colourful pictures. The colours are quiet subdued and soft, very young children may not find them sufficiently stimulating however, in a genre of book which is typically hard to find this is a good start.

[Mandy J. Hoffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

An adorable tale of a baby monkey and his search for a safe place when there are scary storms or other scary things! Sweet story with a comforting lesson for kids.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sweet story about a little monkey in search of a safe place when a storm comes. I used it for a monkey-themed Spanish story time program.