Amazon.com (ISBN 061848602X, Paperback)

The five little monkeys and their mama have had it with their "rickety, rattletrap wreck of a car." It's time to sell this old heap. Mama makes a "For Sale" sign and goes inside. But her ever-helpful children worry that the car is too icky, sticky, and slimy, and take matters into their own industrious hands. "I know!" says one little monkey. And next thing they know, they're washing and scrubbing the filthy jalopy. Now it's clean, but still rusty and stinky. The monkeys ponder. "I know!" says one little monkey. Soon the car is painted and perfumed within an inch of its life. Unfortunately, it's not visible to potential buyers. "I know!" says one little monkey. With all these collective brainstorms, it's not long before the sparkly clean, psychedelically colorful car has landed in the swamp, with the five chagrined little monkeys inside, and a gaggle of crocodiles lurking nearby, licking their chops. How will they ever get themselves out of this mess, and sell the car, to boot? "I know!" says one little monkey...

These five are no strangers to silly predicaments and clever solutions, as evidenced in Eileen Christelow's four other entertaining picture books about the quintet, including Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree. (Ages 3 to 7) --Emilie Coulter