Do you want to read a fun and heartwarming book? Then you have picked the right choice!
Summer of the Monkeys is a book about a boy named Jay Berry. He has a sister, who has a crippled leg, a mother, a father, and a dog named Rowdy. They go onto a new farm that his grandpa gives to them. Jay Berry one day goes out to hunt and finds monkeys up in a tree. One of them looks a bit too big to be a monkey. He tells his dad about it, but he doesn’t believe Jay Berry. So he tells his grandfather and finds out from him that the monkeys he saw belonged to a circus. Apparently, they ran away from the circus, and for every monkey brought back, 2 dollars is given to them!
Jay Berry gets interested in this once he hears about the prize money. If he gives the monkeys back, then he could get his pony and .22 gun! So he decides to start telling his dad again about it, and he finally believes Jay Berry once he sees the monkeys for himself. Jay Berry starts setting up traps, but they don’t work out that great. The monkeys always seem to be one step ahead of him, especially the big one, who Jay Berry calls Jimbo.
Daisy and their mother laugh about the monkeys and Jay Berry, and he keeps saying he will catch them. But it still doesn’t work. He even ends up getting sick for a few days because of getting bitten, and that means that not only does he have to take a break from monkey hunting, he also has to be treated by his sister. She’s not a bad doctor, but Jay Berry doesn’t like having her doctoring him. Even Rowdy runs away from Daisy since he doesn’t want her treating him.
This might sound unbelievable, but the monkeys actually make Jay Berry become drunk when they trick him into drinking a substance that is used to make whiskey. His mother gets angry at him, but his father actually talks to him and discusses about what happened. Jay Berry gets sick the day after, and Daisy has to doctor him. Again.
Even when Jay Berry’s grandpa gets involved and comes up with an idea to use coconuts as bait, the monkeys quickly eat the fruit, so now they don’t have any left. However, when a storm comes up, the monkeys are very helpless and are crouched in a mini cave. Jay Berry finds them a few days later, and they look exhausted and cold. Jay Berry lets them stay in his house, and it looks like they finally accept going back to the circus. Jay Berry gets the money, but he decides not to use it to buy a pony and .22. He uses it to help treat Daisy’s twisted leg that hasn’t ever been cured.
With all of their money combined together, Jay Berry’s mother and Daisy go to a doctor and arrive six weeks later, with Daisy’s leg fixed and Jay Berry having his pony and .22 gun. His grandpa gives him the pony he wanted, and Daisy and his mother give him the gun he wanted. Jay Berry still remembers, to this day, the summer of the monkeys.
I love this book and will give it 5 stars since its plot is funny and exciting. The monkeys are very cunning and you never know what will happen next with the story. I recommend this book to people 10 years and older and people who like humorous books. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and start reading Summer of the Monkeys!
Written by Kruti Patel
