Monkey and Me

With a lot of imagination and some creative contortions, a little girl pretends that she and her adored stuffed monkey fit right in with tribes of penguins, kangaroos, bats, elephants and... monkeys. A catchy refrain sets up each scenario: “Monkey and me,/ Monkey and me,/ Monkey and me,/ We went to see....” Readers can take a moment to guess which species the feisty pigtailed narrator, a Pippi Longstocking in the making, is miming before a turn of the page shows the relevant animals at their antic best. To evoke a mama kangaroo and her joey, for example, the girl stuffs Monkey under her shirt; to become an elephant, she bends at the waist, makes one of her arms a trunk and turns the other into a prehensile tail that pulls Monkey-as-calf behind her. Working in pencil and watercolor, with a palette limited to red, black and brown, Gravett (Orange Pear Apple Bear ) portrays the action in a series of exuberant spot sketches set against a white sweep. This approach not only gives the pictures the momentum and spontaneity of roughed-out animation, it also provides readers with step-by-step instruction for recreating at least some of the fun in their own homes. A final spread has girl and toy going “zzzzzzzz”—but the game has not ended: a real monkey watches them, a huge and contagious grin on his face. Ages 2-6. (Mar.)