Five little monkeys go shopping

In Five Little Monkeys Go Shopping, Eileen Christelow's latest book in the series, Mama takes her rambunctious brood to the store to buy school clothes. Despite Mama's refrain-"Stay right here! And don't go wandering off!"-the little scamps keep disappearing and reappearing, creating mass confusion (and teaching some basic subtraction and addition skills). (Clarion, $16 40p ages 3-6 ISBN 9780-618-82161-7; Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

PreS-Gr 2-Mother monkey and her five children are off to do some back-to-school shopping. Stay together, she implores, but soon enough one or more wander off-to check out the toys, look for water, or find the bathroom. Mama searches for those who are missing, returning each time to find a different number of children from those she left only minutes before. The situation gets especially convoluted when her own group is joined by three friends whose dad is off searching for their two sisters. While Mama is understandably confused, she's adept at mental math, using equations, shown in thought balloons, to keep track of her brood. A helpful saleslady also keeps her focused, finally stepping in to make a storewide announcement calling all stray monkeys back to the children's clothing department. Will this number add up to 10, as readers expect? Certainly not, as a grandma's also out shopping with her four. With its winning combination of art and text, this book will strike a chord with many readers. Kids will love the slapstick plot and energetic, expressive characters, and surprising conclusion, and teachers will appreciate the seamless integration of math skills from counting to addition and subtraction.-Martha Topol, Traverse Heights Elementary School, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.