Five Little Monkeys

I frequently have checked out from the public library 30-40 books.  Tonight Robby helped me carry in my new stack of books and questioned why I got so many from the library at one time.  I replied that I just never know which ones will be good and which ones won't be.  I have no idea how I got exposed to the Five Little Monkey picture book series, but they are a hit with my kids.  They want to read them in the car, before we even leave the library parking lot.

Catherine reads them over and over again (it is cute to watch as she really learns the story and uses differently voices and lots of expression).  Sabrina brings them to Robby for him to read.  Both girls crack up at the pictures and the plots.

All of these are by Eileen Christelow and have a "message" to go with the cute, silly plot.  Five Little Monkeys Go Shopping includes some math lessons as the children keep wandering away from their Mama in the store,

Five Little Monkeys Play Hide and Seek involves the mischievous monkeys hiding when a babysitter comes over.  The illustrations are neat, as the monkeys hide throughout the house and yard.
Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree is about them climbing out onto the branches of a tree which overhangs a creek full of crocodiles.  When I turned one of the pages, Sabrina screamed out "Snap!," which just happened to be the word printed on the page.  As the story progresses, the crocodiles are biting at the monkeys.  I was shocked because Sabrina's response came the very first time I read the book to them and I know that she could not read the word "snap" on the page.  So I asked her how she knew the word "snap" was next and she said it was from the song we sang at Music Class (at Camp Sunshine).
The last book in the series which I have been able to locate from the library is Five Little Monkeys With Nothing to Do.  This is a great "message" book.  As the monkeys keep going to their Mama and complaining they are bored she finds cleaning and straightening tasks for them to do.
I can't wait to find more books in this series at the library ... I love when we discover new books that the children love!