I Love You, Little Monkey

My kids, ages 3-6, really love this book. The little monkey wants to play with his mother, but she is busy doing monkey-housework type things, and then resting, and keeps putting him off. In the meantime, he gets bored and into trouble, and eventually she loses patience with him. In the end though, she apologizes, and says she loves him always, and they play happily together. Both the story and pictures really engage my children, and I always reinforce after that I always love them, even if sometimes I seem 'grumpy' or sometimes they make 'mistakes'.For me, the value of stories is partly about helping kids process different emotional experiences, and so I think the story of this one does that. Of course, if you never lose patience with your kids, maybe yours don't need help processing that one, lol:-)As for the critical review here, I first off don't really agree that all the actions of the 'little monkey' in this book could be considered accidental. Some are and some aren't. Mostly he just seems bored, so again, I think this book offers a good opportunity for discussing how to deal with boredom, how to play alone, and how sometimes Mommy (or Daddy, or Grandma, etc.) need to do other things. It also offers the opportunity to discuss what is 'on purpose' and what is 'accidental'. In short, it is just a fantasy version of something that honestly occurs in many households every single day, and this offers a wonderful and fun way to air that out, and reinforce the message that love trumps all.

This is definitely a book that I recommend to parents with little ones. The mischievous little monkey just keeps making mistakes but after guidance from Big monkey he makes it better. It shows how you can rectify mistakes such as making a mess (clean it up). It also shows that parents can make mistakes just like anyone else, and we can also apologize to our little ones. My 2year old now looks at me after she does something wrong and says, "i will make it better Big Monkey."

Received before I needed it, looks like a cute book for my little one who is in love with monkeys right now!

Adorable book!! My grandson just loves monkeys and didn't want to return this book when due at the library. Thankfully the Easter Bunny brought him his very own copy!! This story has a great message for kids that teaches them patience and understanding. When mommy monkey can't devote her attention to little monkey, he gets into trouble but the mommy monkey still loves him even though he sometimes misbehaves!! Cute illustrations too.

We first read this book to my son after we took it out from our local library. He loved it so much that we kept going back to get it over and over again. It is a very sweet story.

My three year old did not like this book because "him not do that on purpose, why him Mommy so mad?" In other words -- the little monkey accidentally causes havoc but his mother reacts as if he's done it on purpose. Up until the end the book does not make a distinction between an accident and an intentional act and the apology at the end of the book does not resolve this problem.

My wife ordered this in hard back to give our paperback one away. She says it is an excellent book!

Lots of “naughty” and “bad” labeling in this book. I sent it back.

My four year old loves this book!

Very happy with this purchase. My 2 yr old loves this book. Illustrations are colourful and lovely.

I bought this for my adopted son to give him reassurance that no matter what he does we will still love him! After a bad day he always picks this book so it shows it gets to a child's level of thinking! Perfect for age 3+

Arrived promptly and as good as new. Very happy with purchase

A sweet story but not my favourite book as I feel we should avoid labelling children 'naughty', however the staff at the nursery where I work were upset that the only copy of the book which the children 'love' was in a terrible state due to over use. This is a second hand copy that arrived quickly and is in very good condition. I only paid £2.80 which was mostly for postage.