Book Review: Summer of the Monkeys

"Papa," I asked, "how can you help a wish?"
"Oh, there are a lot of ways," Papa said. "Hard work, faith, patience, and determination. I think prayer and really believing in your wish can help more than anything else.” 

I know.  I haven't reviewed any books recently. And I'm sure that this has caused you much distress.  You don't know what to read without me there, the sensei of  all bibliophiles,  guiding your literary pursuits, I'm sure!  What could explain this lapse in direction?  Has Hannah stopped reading books?  Not hardly.  Has she stopped having opinions about them?  That'll be the day.

It's simply that I have my rule.  Remember the rule about not reviewing series until I've read all of them?  That rule that I break all the time? Well, that rule is why.  I have been reading a lot of books that are parts of series.  And then, I read some that I didn't write reviews on.  I am here, today, to remedy that!

Summer of the Monkeys is about Jay Berry Lee, a farm boy in the Ozarks. He really, really wants a horse and a .22, but his family could never afford that.  But then, he learns about the escaped circus monkeys on the loose that, if returned to the circus can buy him everything he dreamed about.  And yet, it could also buy everything his crippled sister, Daisy, needs.  But could it buy both?

It's a beautiful story of growing up, and friendship and kindness.  I really liked it.  I also liked Jay Berry.  He's a trouble-maker,  but he's such a kind-hearted one, and he's not a bad boy.  He's just mischievous and I like that.  He's a very real character. I bawled like a baby at the end, but it was also 1:30 in the morning, and at a very emotional time of the month for women, so take that with a grain of salt.


Some interesting thoughts related this topic:

So, there's a website called goodreads.com, where you can rate and review books, and find other books to read.  And basically, it's like the obsessive reader's heaven.  Well, I have something to share about this Summer of the Monkeys from Goodreads.  There was someone on there who gave a review this effect:  "Disney ruined this book.  The movie is nothing like the book."  While that's certainly their opinion, but it is faulty logic to say that because the movie was different it was inherently not as good.  I actually disagree.  I don't disagree that the movie was different.  But I disagree that Disney ruined it.  And here's why:

1) You can change a book, quite heavily, and still be true to the themes and thoughts and plots in your movie.  It's a different artform.  So it follows naturally that it would have to be changed to be the same artistically.  That's not to say that I enjoy it when my favorite parts are left out, but it can be done.  This movie retained the plot and the themes and really everything that was actually important about the book. They added stuff, but I liked what they added.  And they changed some things for production logistic purposes.  In the movie there are six chimps.  In the book, there are close to 50 monkeys and one ape.  That's logistically harder for a movie. 
2) Changing something doesn't mean making it worse.

I enjoyed this book.  I really did.  But I actually feel like the movie had more cohesiveness and delivered the messages more subtly--and I think that's beautiful.

Second thing that was interesting on Goodreads.  A lot of people were saying, "Wilson Rawls wrote two books, and no one knows Summer of the Monkeys. I like it better than Where the Red Fern Grows."  It's like you think you're a better person because you like something more obscure.  In terms of the books, I like Where the Red Fern Grows better.  I actually like the Disney movie of Summer of the Monkeys more than I liked the book of Where the Red Fern Grows.  Just some funny thoughts.


And yet, four stars for the book.  Which is the same amount of stars that Where the Red Fern Grows got from me, but Where the Red Fern Grows had to pay the "dog-and-his-boy-book" star penalty, and Summer of the Monkeys didn't.