Author: Wilson Rawls
Yearling, 2010 (Originally Doubleday, 1976)
Ebook, 290 Pages
Chapter Book Grades 3-7
Jay Berry Lee wants only two things in the whole wide world: a pony and a pistol. Unfortunately, he’s a poor farm boy. His family barely has enough money to survive, and his sister Daisy needs an expensive operation to save her leg.
Monkeys have escaped from the circus and encamped in the jungle-like river bottom nearby.
And then Jay Berry finds out that monkeys have escaped from the circus and encamped in the jungle-like river bottoms nearby. The reward money will ensure he can get his gun and his horse, with a bit left over. So with the help of his faithful hound dog, his wily grandpa, and his patient father, Jay Berry sets out to catch the monkeys. It’s easier said than done, and it turns into a summer-long battle of wits.
Wilson Rawls’ much-lauded classic poses as a straightforward boys’ own adventure, but it’s more than that. It’s telling that the expected high point of the story – Jay Berry’s capture of the monkeys – happens well before the end of the book. At its core, this is a story about relationships: boy and dog, boy and grandfather, brother and sister. And it makes the ending all the more satisfying.
Also very satisfying is the author’s descriptive but never maudlin writing style. It very much feels like a story your grandpa might tell you if he was a country boy.
As with many classic books, it’s good to remember that this is a story very much of its time and place. There’s an episode where Jay Berry inadvertently gets drunk, but it ends with him swearing off whiskey forever. Hunting and guns are central to the plot, but there’s no cruelty intended or shown. How Jay Berry eventually catches the monkeys has more to do with kindness than hunting prowess.
I enjoyed rereading this book as an adult, but I enjoyed it more when I read it as a kid. If your child is interested in historical fiction or outdoorsy adventure, they’ll probably like Summer of the Monkeys.
Summer of the Monkeys gets 4.5 stars from this reviewer.