SO SAY THE LITTLE MONKEYS

Van Laan (With a Whoop and a Holler, p. 119, etc.) recasts a traditional story into a catchy rhymed chant to explain why the blackmouth monkeys along Brazil's Rio Negro sleep in the open, in uncomfortably thorny palm trees. Shivering at night from the rain (""PLINKA PLINKA"") and wind (""WOOYA WOOYA""), plus an occasional passing jaguar (""GURR-YUH GURR-YUH""), the monkeys resolve to build homes in the morning, but in the sun's light their decisions fall to such pleasures as jumping and sliding, gobbling bananas, singing (""'Jibba jibba jabba'"") and swinging (""WHEEEE""). In other words, they just can't get it together. Wearing Curious George smiles or frowns, these small, rubber-limbed monkeys cavort against Heo's Klee-like backgrounds, or sometimes across a white page: Lines of text, too, take an occasional swoop. Van Laan doesn't drive her point home, but then, she doesn't need to; look for plenty of grudging recognition here, from adult readers as well as children.