Summary from the back of the book: Ashley was not prepared for the turmoil and disasters her baby chimpanzee would create. At times, she wished she had left baby Tina, at her home in Africa.

Rylee, Ashley’s best friend did her best to help.

However, this baby chimpanzee always seemed to be one step ahead of them.

There was no slowing down with Tina.

Would they ever be able to control her? Just how far would she go?

My review: I enjoyed this book, but I took it in to school and read it to my 7 and 8 year old students. They LOVED it! Most children are animal lovers and they fell in love with Tina the baby chimpanzee. The children could relate to all of the trouble Tina got into. They said things like, “Tina reminds me of my brother, whenever he is quiet for a long time he is usually into something - just like Tina.” “The monkey reminds me of my little sister when she is sleeping - I love to watch her sleep.” “Ashley reminds me of myself - I like to dress up my dog like she likes to dress up Tina.” The children loved the book, they thought it was funny. They became interested in knowing more about Africa (where Tina came from). We loved the illustrations. Charr Floyd did a fabulous job capturing the silly monkey, Tina in all of her antics.

Each time I brought the book out to read to the children, they became excited. They were engaged throughout and had questions and comments. This is a great book for 9-12 year old children to read independently, but I would also highly recommend it as a read aloud to younger children - even as young as five or six years old.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 12:00 am

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