Grumpy monkey party time! by Suzanne Lang. Illus. by Max Lang

Suzanne Lang is an American children’s book author and TV Producer who partners with her husband Max Lang who illustrates her publications.  She has written three picture books in the Grumpy Monkey series so far.  Grumpy Monkey was the first and reached No 1 on the New York Times best seller list.  Grumpy Monkey Party time is the second book and Grumpy Monkey up all night is the third she has written.

In the first book Grumpy Monkey the author tackles the issue of unexplained feelings and how children can deal with them without hurting others.  In this second picture book the main character, Jim Panzee, is invited to a party and reveals to his friends that he cannot dance. So, they teach him all the cool dance moves they know to help him fit in. But as the party continues Jim realizes that he does not like to dance and proceeds to tell everyone. To his surprise he finds others that agree with him and they find other things they like to do at the party. The author attempts to uncover ways to enable children speak up if they don’t like something and to demonstrate that they don’t necessarily need to follow the crowd to enjoy themselves.

The bright colorful, funny, cartoon style characters reveal their emotions and reactions throughout the story as the illustrations take us to a fabulous party, including a double-page fold out of the Conga line dance that tips Jim over the line. They capture the true joy of a big party and the many things that are happening which children will enjoy discovering time and time again.

Themes: Parties, Chimpanzees, Dancing, Feelings.

Gabrielle Anderson