Monkey's Puzzle

by Jean Coppendale

These charming slipcase boxes set floor puzzles contain a 16-page board book and a giant-sized jigsaw encouraging the development of colour matching and co-ordination skills. The books and puzzle are beautifully illustrated and the over-sized pieces of the jigsaw floor puzzle are easy for small children to handle. In this title, Monkey is feeling bored and is out to cause mischief. His jokes aren't always appreciated by his animal friends, however, and they decide it's time to play a trick of their own. Meet Monkey's jungle friends, and find out what happens. The floor puzzle shows Monkey himself.

Genres: Childrens

16 pages, Board Book

First published October 1, 2002

Reviews

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute book - gives a simple reason why animals have the outsides they do, and makes it a joke. The 'puzzle' is the other animals playing a joke that the monkey has to figure out.

[Sana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monkey Puzzle, is a book about a small monkey that has lost his mum. A friendly butterfly comes along to help the monkey find his mum, they travel through the jungle to find his mother and come across different jungle animals across the away. I enjoyed this book, as it is like a hide and seek game for children, getting them to guess what animal the butterfly thinks is the little monkey’s mother. I would recommend reading this book to children in foundation or KS1 in school. This book could be used as a topic book and read to the whole class, this book could also be used for creative lessons such as art for example children creating lost posters for the little monkey to put around the jungle to find his mother.

[Rocheal Hoffman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not fond of the abrupt ending to this appealing story, however it does leave the perfect opportunity for students to rewrite! Students should use inquiry and collaborate or work independently to rewrite the ending in this story and perhaps act it out.
Also, this book opens the door to why we have skin. The bird says he has feathers on his skin so he can fly, the elephant says his thick skin keeps him from getting scratched, but the monkey laughs and says they're all wrong because skin is to keep bones from falling out. Is this true? :)

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a really great story that toddlers would enjoy and I can see many of them laughing at it. It introduces many animals in the story, and it is also telling them something about each animal as well. One thing that I didn't like about this was the title of the book. When I read Monkey's Puzzle, I thought the monkey was going to be doing a puzzle along with the other animals. Therefore, I can see that this would be misleading to some children.