Brian Selznick. Honey. We’ve got to talk.Now look, it was all well and good when you started getting a little crazy and shaking up notions of what an “illustrated book” actually means. Winning the Caldecott for a novel? Never been done before. And the fact that Hugo Cabret and its companion novels Wonderstruck and The Marvels push every conceivable envelope, in terms of what a visual novel can be, is not just noteworthy but historic. But now you’re getting all slick on us. It wasn’t enough to c...

Baby Monkey is quite the sleuth when it comes to solving crimes, although he’s not so hot at putting on his pants. The artwork of Brian Selznick (The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Wonderstruck) and stories by Selznick and David Serlin make this early reader book a giggle-inducing winner with its quirky pictures and large, easy-to-read text. Readers with some background knowledge will enjoy figuring out why the artifacts in Baby Monkey’s office change to fit the crime under investigation, although th...

I read this at work when all of our systems were down, and this had just arrived. It is incredibly cute, and of course I love Brian Selznick's illustrations. I expected this to be more like a chapter book based on the size, but there are very few words and it qualifies more as a beginning reading book. It has a repetitive structure which works great for kids learning to read, and it doesn't take very long to get through. I thought the text that was present was very charming, and I loved the endi...

If you've ever looked for a combo of picture book, easy reader, chapter book, graphic novel, humor-mystery, this is your book. It's almost too many things, but the experience of reading it with my four-and-a-half year old was definitely five stars.The text is super simple and repetitive. The illustrations are almost colorless, but very detailed. As in other books by Selznick, the text and illustrations both carry a lot of story weight. Crowning moment of the whole thing: when my child took the b...

I have read this to three classes (Kindergarten and first grade) and they were over the moon about it. The hand at the door, the tracks, the pants, they loved it all.

This book was so adorable and of course I love the illustrations.

Cute, funny, easy reader with awesome illustrations. Baby Monkey, Private Eye contains five cases for Baby Monkey, who is of course a baby monkey, to solve.This is a brilliant mash-up of picture and chapter book. The illustrations are more frequent than words and were my favorite part. Marketed to ages 3-8, this book would be a great group read to children almost ready to read and a great choice for beginning readers. The repetition of text means fewer words for young children to memorize. It al...

With a film noir vibe, minimal text, appealing plot repetition, and a few snack breaks along the way, this brilliant blend of early reader and picture book introduces one seriously adorable, wardrobe-challenged detective, Baby Monkey, who is quite the accomplished crime solver. The pants! The snacks! The scene shifts! The criminals! Kids will appreciate the easy font and gorgeous, classically Selznick pencil sketches. Astute parents will chuckle at the clues hidden in each office scene (and thos...

Each year my family reads all the Goodreads-award-nominated picture books. This is book #13 (of 20) of 2018, an early reader (grades 1-4) by the author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret and other middle grade graphic novels. We really liked this book a lot! It features a baby money who is a private eye. It's a first chapter book with few words and Selznick's typically breathtaking drawings. It's also a mystery short story collection, teaching people to pay attention to clues in the backgrounds (as...

Adorable and silly, this was very fun to read and I think will be extra fun to read with our nieces.

This book makes my heart happy - on so many levels.

Superb illustrations but weak on the storytelling.

This book pretty much had me at the title. I mean come on!!! A Private Eye monkey. Brilliant!Heavy, smooth, cool to the touch pages with big, easy words and dazzlingly detailed, black & white (with dashes of red) illustrations come together to form Baby Monkey, Private Eye.I knew this book was supposed to be a blend of picture book and easy reader styles, but I was surprised and honestly a little disappointed with the simplicity here. On one hand, it was a cute story with repeating steps to read...

This is kind of an oddball book - 191 pages, yet meant for the youngest readers - but I thought it was adorable. (Don't panic about the page-count: most pages are either wordless, or have less than six words.) Baby Monkey solves several cases by . . . apparently following footprints, and most of the time, the culprit seems to be right outside the door to his office. I doubt that kids will care. They'll be anticipating the repetitious parts about all that Baby Monkey needs to do to get ready to s...

Kind of adorable! I liked it but didn't love it. As a bookseller I'm not sure who I'll give this book to but I'll know them when I see them.

As an elementary school librarian, reading teacher, and a parent of a 6-year-old (and several older kids who were once 6), I'll tell you why this book is fabulous: because ALL kindergarten and first graders want in the whole entire world is to be able to check out and read a BIG BOOK. They want one just like the big kids get. The thick ones. With chapters. That's why Selznick's other books are so hot - BIG THICK BOOKS that all kids can experience.BUT. We keep talking Good Fit Books this and Good...

The art is all what you expect of a Brian Selznick book. It's fantastic. The story is repetitive and good, not as great as I have come to expect from Brian.Baby Monkey is a detective and he solves cases really well. The thing is, each chapter is a case and they are all the same accept who did it and the pictures in the room. It's fun to see the differences. Still, there isn't much of a story here, not like even his novels before Hugo Cabret. A beginning reader could easily read this for themselv...

ARC from the publisher at ALA MidwinterIn this very early chapter book, Selznick fuses his trademark cross hatched pencil sketches with addictively repetitive picture book text in a middle grade novel trim size. Still with me? We learn who Baby Monkey is (a baby monkey) and that he has crimes to solve in a particular way, mainly, by looking for clues, writing notes, struggling mightily to put on his pants, and then immediately capturing the culprit. The pictures are adorable, the text (which is

This is kind of random, but the book before my last one also had Monkey in the title, and I liked it even less than this. Perhaps there's an embedded message?Cute illustrations, as always in a Brian Selznick book, but this one did not work for me. Great premise: a baby monkey private detective. But, much of his cleverness is not shared with readers. Five clients come to his office to help find something stolen, and he solves the crimes one by one. But, we don't know how. Kind of disappointing ac...

This is damn near 5 stars. It absolutely stole my heart before we even got to the contents. A wonderful beginning reader that may look a little intimidating but will sit just right. Screaming WAIT! is my favorite, much as it is in I Am Invited to a Party! (Elephant and Piggie). Funny text, delightful illustrations that you expect from Selznick, and a super snuggly ending. An unexpected key, index, and bibliography for curious readers.A must have for public and school libraries. Perfect for a kid...