WHERE'S MY MONKEY?

A wordless picture book about a toy monkey, lost and found. When his constant companion is accidentally dropped off the back of the bike the little boy is sharing with his mother, they go back through a wintry rainstorm to look for him, but to no avail. Mice have pulled Monkey into their burrow, where they play with him till spring brings a hedgehog family to take him outdoors to join their romps. A magpie is his next companion but she drops him into a pond, whence he's fished out by a Geppetto-like toy hospital proprietor, who repairs his considerable injuries before he is rediscovered at last, on a snowy day, by his original boy. Schubert lives in Amsterdam; while his felicitous style is his own, his humor, imaginative use of detail, and effective deployment of design call Netherlands-born Peter Spier to mind. Sure to yield new discoveries with each perusal, this monkey should be with us for a long time.