One evening, Monkey decides to surprise his best friend, Elephant, with a tray of cupcakes. When he arrives at Elephant’s house, he thinks he sees a costume party going on inside. Monkey runs away in tears. Why wasn’t he invited? His sadness turns to anger, and he sneaks into Elephant’s house to deep-freeze all of Elephant’s toys. So Elephant gets Monkey back by giving the multitudinous Bunny family the key to Monkey’s house, and Monkey gets Elephant back by painting a silly face on his rump when he’s asleep…it only gets worse and louder and more violent! The other animals on the island can’t stand it, so they devise an ingenious plan to get the two best friends back together. After recriminations ("You froze my toys!") come realizations ("I should have just asked you about it!"), hugs and apologies, and all goes nearly back to normal. Townsend’s tale of a fight fueled by misunderstanding and then revenge is told in a hybrid of graphic panels and traditional full-page and spot illustrations. The heavy-line cartoon illustrations populated by simple, rubber-limbed characters relate the instructive tale with pitch-perfect notes of humor and silliness that never approach the didactic. (Picture book. 4-8)
