Good Crooks: Missing Monkey

       

     I have an embarrassing teacher confession to make: I haven’t always read a book before I chose it as a read-aloud.  I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW.  You never know how your kids are going to react to a book anyway, and when you throw in the fact that you don’t know what is going to happen, you’re kinda just waiting to fail.  Anytime I don’t read a book beforehand, I’m waiting for an F bomb that I need to skate over, or some long dialogue about farting that I won’t be able to get my kids back from, or any other of the thousands of things that could be disastrous in a read-aloud (or amazing.  It can really go either way, folks).  We are currently finishing up the last book that I didn’t bother to read before reading it to my kiddos, The Chocolate Touch.  Thankfully, they have loved it, but I’ve been on the lookout for what we are going to read next.  I struck gold (and even read the book) in Good Crooks: Missing Monkey by Mary Amato.

            Billy and Jillian are twins being raised by their crook mother and father.  They spend fun afternoons together as a family doing things like learning how to pick locks or pickpocket at the local mall.  Growing up, Billy and Jillian thought this was normal, but Billy can’t help but feel the urge to do something good.  When he sees an advertisement for a cleanup day at the local zoo, Billy decides to go.  Dressed up in one of his crook disguises, he goes to the zoo.  There, he runs into his sister, who has always been a better crook than him.  It turns out, she has been wanting to do good, too.  Before they can plan anything, however, their parents show up, dressed as two male construction workers of course.  In the minutes that follow, Billy and Jillian’s parents steal a monkey from the zoo, and the book continues with the twins trying to set right their parents’ wrongs.

            This book is hilarious.  I found myself sitting on my couch, laughing to myself over a book written for people half my age.  I was worried about the whole aspect of the parents being criminals.  Would it glamorize law-breaking?  Would it be too preachy about not stealing?  What about my kiddos who might be raised in homes where stealing isn’t perceived as negative?  I shouldn’t have worried, though, because Mary Amato did a masterful job.  Even though Billy and Jillian love their parents, they come to realize that what they are doing is not right.  The parents aren’t mean, but are instead these kind of loveable buffoons, like when the mom sports a full mustache or when they dress the monkey up as a baby to teach it pickpocketing at the mall.  The pictures really added to the silly nature.  Billy spends about half the book dressed up as an old grandma, and I think my kids are going to go bananas (get it) over that aspect.  There’s also some pretty hilarious scenes at the zoo, including monster elephant “pies.”  The parents don’t stop being crooks at the end, but there are more books in the series, so maybe their children will bring them about in the end.

 

            Bottom Line:  I LOVED IT!  This is a perfect read-aloud for 1^st and 2^nd graders, and could be enjoyed independently by 3^rd and 4^th graders.  It is written on a level P (late 3^rd grade), and the illustrations add hilarity and some scaffolding.  Nothing inappropriate, surprisingly, just good ole bad guy humor.  Highly recommend as a younger middle-grade novel.

Title:  Good Crooks: Missing Monkey

Author: Mary Amato

Illustrator:  Ward Jenkins

Publisher/Publishing Date:  Scholastic 2014