SOLVED. Marooned on alien planet with monkey sidekick kids illustrated [s]

[Michael]

Looking for a book another student had in Elementary school, I think this was around 1989.

It was a kind of sci-fi adventure with a space explorer character (more pulp SF-inspired than a real astronaut sort of thing) who crashes on an alien world. He's got a monkey (or maybe a chimp) for a sidekick, they both wear space suits. I believe the book had puzzles and activities you were meant to solve before reading on, but not the sort of book that you'd actually draw in, because every page was illustrated in full color from nearly top to bottom. It had a cartoony art style but not flat art at all, the characters and backgrounds were very well rendered. I vaguely recall a lot of thorny vines, I believe that was what they crash landed in.

I think this book was part of a series of illustrated activity books from the same publisher, though they weren't related thematically. It was an oversized paperback like a coloring book, probably in the 30-40 page range.

I'd love to track down a copy today, I remember the art was very cool.

Thanks for any help!

[Kris]

The Planet Of Terror by Patrick Burston?

[Michael]

Yeah, I think that's it, thank you!

[Kris]

You're welcome. Please let us know if it turns out to be the right book, and we'll close the case. :)

[Michael]

I actually already switched the post's folder to "YA-Solved," was that not the thing to do? I'm actually pretty certain this is it, the gold monkey robot on the cover is definitely the space-suited monkey sidekick I was thinking of even though I remembered it wrong. I've ordered a copy though, so I'll be able to see how wrong my memory is. :)

[Kris]

Sounds good. If you find it's not the book, just re-open the case. Good luck. :)