Al Perkins (1904–1975)

First sentence: Hand hand fingers thumb. One thumb one thumb drumming on a drum. One hand two hands drumming on a drum. Dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum.

Premise/plot: What starts out as one monkey joyfully drumming ends with millions of monkeys jamming away on their drums. Perkins' book is a jazzy treat that delights readers old and new.

Favorite quotes:

"Hello Jack." "Hello Jake." Shake hands shake hands. Shake! Shake! Shake!

Hand in hand more monkeys come. Many more fingers. Many more show more thumbs. Many more monkeys. Many more drums. Millions of fingers! Millions of thumbs! Millions of monkeys drumming on drums!

My thoughts: Everything I learned about rhythm and rhyme I learned by reading this one. An exaggeration perhaps, there is also Dr. Seuss. But I tend to judge the quality of all other picture books attempting rhythm with this one. Most fail horribly. There is just something magical about this one. Yes, I grew up with it. Yes, I quote it all the time. I think the book is timeless and just about perfect.

The text lends itself to easy memorization--it is fun, it is catchy, it is practically perfect in every way.

Have you read it? What did you think?

Text: 5 out of 5
Illustrations: 5 out of 5
Total: 10 out of 10 show less

This is worthy and spirited, although its manic energy and island rhythms would have been better served if it came with, like, a set of bongo drums (ditty drums ditty drums drums drums). But one makes do, of course, especially if one is a one-year-old one with a fine set of hands hands fingers thumbs for bashing and a throat for monkey calls.

There's something slightly cracked about the whimsy here. "EAR. EAR. EAR. EAR." It's poised between kids' book and madness. Sure there's all the things we can hear, what fun, but then there's a tug on your ear. ear. ear. ear and it's the man without a face and he'd like to have a word.

I can not tell you how many times my poor parents were forced to read this book to me. All I know was that I never, ever tired of it. The illustrations are fabulous, with bright, vivid colors and great 60s-era cartoons. The text is what captivated me, I think - the rhythms of the words are like a hypnotic song "one thumb, one thumb, drumming on a drum....dum-ditty, dum-ditty, dum dum dum." I can practically recite it from memory 30 years after I stopped demanding nightly readings (although, show more in a nostalgic moment, I did ask my parents to read it to me on my latest visit, and we still enjoyed it). It is simple - this is not Dickens' prose, and the people to whom I've recommended it often look skeptical, but this book worked its magic on me as no other did. Even after I started reading more advanced books, I kept returning to this one for the rhythms. One thing to note is that the original book is very hard to find in stores. When I've found this book on the shelves, it has usually been an abridged version.

I still love it. show less