Buhuki

by Janaki Sooriyarachchi (Author & Illustrator )

24 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Janaki Sooriyarachchi is a very versatile author-illustrator in Sri Lanka, who started writing in her early childhood. She wrote her first book, a ballad, when she was 8 years old and her first book was published at the age of 14. Since then, she has authored over 175 story books for children.

Though she started her career as a banker in a private bank, she continued her hobbies in art and literature.


She received the following awards, among others:
State Literary Awards-2007 (Children's Literature-English)
Bunka Awards -2005 Japan - Sri Lanka Cultural Foundation
State Literary Awards-2004 (Children's Literature-Sinhala)
State Literary Awards-2004 (Children's Literature-English)

Reviews

[Nicoll Blomquist · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is about a monkey who inadvertently tricks his family as well as the people in the village. The storyline is poor and needs work in my opinion. Many things transpire in this story that does not fit with the theme.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Level: Primary - Intermediate

This digital book teaches children the importance of sharing. Buhuki is a monkey that ends up in quite a predicament when he tries to not share his food.

[TheoR · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was funny that everyone thought that Buhuki was a gost. Kids would love reading this book.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading a book in a different language is very difficult and one needs to rely a lot on the illustrations. Italian is latin based, so I assumed I could read a word or two, but it was not enough to understand the content. The content I was able to understand is that Bongo is a mischievous little monkey with a caring family. Bongo begins to interact with humans. In one illustration Bongo is throwing fruit from the tree to the children. Next thing you know, Bongo’s curiosity takes over as he wants to get a look inside a hollow tree and birds begin to chase him. Bongo runs to the village and gets covered by a white dust. His white appearance begins to scare the village and Bongo runs home. At home, he also frightens the other monkeys, until his mother recognizes his voice and brings him back in her arms.
The expressions of the characters in the illustrations were very helpful in being able to understand some of the content. This demonstrates the importance of expressions in picture books, especially for younger readers who need the pictures to help read or comprehend the story. It was fun reading a book in a different language.

[Evelyn Chen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buhuki is a monkey who found a juicy fruit and did not share with a flock of crows. So, the crows pecked him and Buhuki got caught in a mound of cotton. Covered in white, he scared away the village folks and his family, who thought they saw a ghost. Of course, his mother recognized his voice, so Buhuki reuinted with his family.

This digital book found on icdl.com teaches children the importance of sharing. I am not familiar with the Sri Lankan culture, but many of the foods mentioned must be commonly consumed. I wonder if the monkey character is of any cultural importance, too.

[Darlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the little monkey. The pictures were fun. Cute little adventure. I picked this up so long ago that I couldn't find traces within my email as to where I got it. Luckily the ebook's second page mentioned bibliotastic. This would be fun to read to little ones and talk about the situations presented.

[Shelby Everitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buhuki is a curious monkey who finds out that humans evolved from monkeys. He wants to learn more about them but when he gets close he gets covered in white and looks like a ghost. He scares everyone, including his family. Finally they realize it is just him and everything is okay again. This is a cute story but it is a little long so I would read it to an older group, maybe 2nd or 3rd grade.

[Srinidhi.R Srinidhi.R · Rating 3 out of 5]

the last picture of the last page is the one I liked the most..the monkeys and how they smile..cute but storyline's poor..

[Cassie]

Buhuki is a little monkey who loves throwing food at the children and doesn't understand how they can like him but their parents do not. Eventually, he learns humans come from monkeys and in a mishap ends up covered in cotton and scares the villagers and the monkeys till someone recognizes him.

This could provide an interesting viewpoint of people not believing what their parents do because I know many people feel like they should. Especially in our world today