Day 119: Where's My Mom?

We first checked this delightful story out of the library several months ago after we fell in love with Julia Donaldson's The Gruffalo.  Given that I had just featured one of her books, though, I decided to wait and come back to Where's My Mom? another time.   My son happened to notice this book again the last time we were at the library, so we brought it home and have read it several times since.  I am happy to report that he loves it just as much now as he did a few months ago, and I'm glad to have been reminded to feature this adorable story here on our blog.  A little monkey is lost in the jungle and unable to find his mom.  A friendly butterfly eagerly sets out to help him, asking questions about his mom's appearance along the way.  "Hush, little monkey, don't you cry.  I'll help you find her," said butterfly. "Let's have a think.  How big is she?"  "She's big!" said the monkey.  "Bigger than me."  "Bigger than you?  Then I've seen your mom.  Come, little monkey, come, come, come."  Excitedly, we turn the page, only to find that the butterfly has led the little monkey to... an elephant!  Each time the monkey describes some other feature of his mother -- her tail that coils around trees, or the fact that she leaps and springs and lives high in the treetops -- the butterfly is convinced she knows where to find her.  And each time, the poor monkey is brought to the wrong animal mother.  We love anticipating what animal the butterfly might take us to next, and my son finds the whole series of mistaken identities to be incredibly silly.  When the monkey is brought back to the elephant again, we can't help but laugh and feel sorry for him, not to mention wonder why on earth the butterfly keeps leading him so astray!  Donaldson has a clever reason why, of course, and once we find out what it is, the story becomes even more charming.  Finally, our little monkey friend is happily reunited with his parents, at which point my son usually requests to go back and read the story again.  The illustrations are cute and colorful, and the verse flows easily and well, overall.  At first I wondered, though, why some of the rhyme schemes seemed a bit off ("Come little monkey, come, come, come.  It's time I took you home to mom.")  "Come" and "mom" clearly don't rhyme...  But then I learned that the American version of the book has been changed ("Mum" is the original word in the British version, which flows much better), as has the title.  In the U.S., this book is called "Where's My Mom?", but in the U.K., it is called "Monkey Puzzle."  I'm not sure why publishers felt the need to change the title and some of the words, but there you go.  My little guy calls me "Mum Mum" anyway, so I just change "Mom" to "Mum" as we read so it sounds nicer.  Either way, we both thoroughly enjoy this book and think that you will, too.