Ed Heck

Eric discovers upon arriving at school that he has lost his monkey, whom he'd intended to display at Show-and-Tell. His teacher and classmates each have their own idea about where a monkey would go, but in the end it is Mr. Pete the bus driver who restores the missing creature to Eric.

Although not really to my taste aesthetically - Ed Heck's artwork here is colorful, but I found it somewhat flat and unappealing - I did appreciate the ending of Monkey Lost, which undercuts the reader's expectations, revealing that the monkey is in fact stuffed, rather than alive. Leaving that aside, I also appreciated the many imaginative guesses Eric's classmates make, in trying to figure out where the monkey has gone. Recommended to anyone looking for children's stories about guessing and/or the nature of expectations.… (mais)