The Farmer and the Monkey

July 15, 2020
In this wordless picture book, Frazee's lonely farmer hosts another visitor from the train on the horizon. The elderly White gent first met in The Farmer and the Clown (2014) walks home from a picnic, looking rather down, unaware he is being followed by a small monkey in a red fez and yellow frill around its neck. As he settles into his empty house, he notices the smiling monkey at the window. He lets the monkey in the front door, but after a dizzying spread depicting the monkey running amok, the farmer sends the monkey out. The frowning monkey spends the night outside as snow begins to fall. The farmer awakes to deep snow and immediately goes out to rescue the monkey. After a warm fire, soup, a story, and falling asleep on the farmer's shoulder, the monkey spends two nights at the farmer's house; on the day in between, the farmer and his animals tolerate the monkey's loud, wild ways. Finally, like the clown in the book before him, the monkey hears the circus train coming and goes on its way, smiles all around. Frazee's soft colors, careful lines, and masterful compositions work their magic once again to evoke mood and feeling in a way that children can immediately grasp. The experience hits adult readers just as powerfully, though readers who decry picture-book depictions of monkeys for reinforcing negative stereotypes of Black people will find no mitigation in the monkey's antics. (This book was reviewed digitally with 8.3-by-20.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 54.1% of actual size.) A (mostly) heartwarming follow-up visit. (Picture book. 5-9)

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 31, 2020
A disruptive monkey takes up the action in this wordless sequel to The Farmer and the Clown. Returning to his farm disheartened, a tall red clown’s hat beneath his arm and its owner’s circus train speeding away behind him, the farmer initially fails to perceive the circus monkey apparently left behind. Trailing him in a yellow collar and red cap, the monkey bows to the farmer at the door, then launches into a whirl of activity (even crumpling the clown’s crisp chapeau) that gets it sent promptly outdoors. But a fall of overnight snow awakens the farmer’s sympathies and care—at least until the monkey has rested enough to cause further chaos. In her signature art style, Frazee slyly turns the previous narrative of loss into one of antic comedy just right for anyone who has wrangled a toddler: this time, when the circus train returns, the farmer looks downright relieved to embrace the solo life. Ages 4–8.