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No Monkeys, No Chocolate
Author:
Stewart, Melissa
CoAuthor:
Young, Allen M.
Illustrator:
Wong, Nicole
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Class:
633.74
Age: 5-8
Language: English
Demand: Moderate
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LC: SB267
Grade: K-3
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ISBN-13: 9781580892872
LCCN: 2012000789
Imprint: Charlesbridge Publishing
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Pub Date: 08/01/2013
Availability: Available
List: $16.95
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Hardcover Reinforced
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Physical Description:
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1 v. (unpaged) : col. ill. ; 23 x 29 cm.
H 11.5",
W 9",
D 0.35",
0.95 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's Children and Teen Nonfiction Picks
Brodart's For Youth Interest: Popular
Brodart's Fresh Reads for Kids TIPS Selections
Brodart's Insight Catalog: Children
Brodart's TOP Juvenile Titles
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Bibliographies:
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Children's Core Collection, 22nd ed.
Children's Core Collection, 23rd ed.
Children's Core Collection, 24th ed.
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Awards:
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Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices
Horn Book Guide Titles, Rated 1 - 4
Kirkus Best Books
Kirkus Starred Reviews
Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12
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Starred Reviews:
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Kirkus Reviews
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TIPS Subjects:
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Cooking/Food/Beverages
Ecology/Environment
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BISAC Subjects: |
JUVENILE NONFICTION / Animals / Apes, Monkeys, etc.
JUVENILE NONFICTION / Science & Nature / Environmental Science & Ecosystems
JUVENILE NONFICTION / Science & Nature / Flowers & Plants
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LC Subjects:
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Beans
Cacao beans, Juvenile literature
Cacao, Diseases and pests, Juvenile literature
Cacao, Juvenile literature
Chocolate
Chocolate processing
Chocolate, Juvenile literature
Cocoa processing, Juvenile literature
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SEARS Subjects: |
Chocolate
Chocolate processing
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Reading Programs: |
Accelerated Reader Level:
4.1
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Points: 0.5
Lexile Level:
740
Reading Counts Level:
3.5
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Points: 2.0
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Juvenile Titles | 10/01/2013 |
| A couple of witty, real-life bookworms take readers to the tropical rainforests as kids discover how plants and animals help make chocolate. It all comes down to the ever-important cocoa bean, and there's more to nurturing this key chocolate ingredient than meets the eye. 32pp., Color Ill. |
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| Starred Reviews: |
| Kirkus Reviews | 07/15/2013 |
| This clever circular tale with a curious title opens with a common scene: a party including chocolaty treats. The authors explain, "[Y]ou can't make chocolate without... / ...cocoa beans." With the turn of the page, readers find themselves in the rain forest microhabitat of the cocoa tree. In each spread, the authors take children backward through the life cycle of the tree: pods, flowers, leaves, stems, roots and back to beans. The interdependence of plants and animals is introduced in the process: Midges carry pollen from one flower to another; aphids destroying tender stems are kept in check by an anole. Graceful ink-and-watercolor illustrations range from an expansive view of the rain forest to a close-up of aphids. Explanations are delivered in a simple manner that avoids terms such as pollination or germination. "Bookworm" commentators in the corner of each spread either reinforce the concept--"No lizards, no chocolate"--or echo youngsters' impatience: "I thought this book was supposed to be about monkeys." Indeed, the book closes with a monkey sitting in a branch with an open pod, eating the pulp and spitting out the beans, which fall to the ground and take root: no monkeys, no chocolate. Backmatter helps young naturalists understand why conservation and careful stewardship is important. Children--and more than a few adults--will find this educational you-are-there journey to the rain forest fascinating. (Informational picture book. 4-8). 32pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2013. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books | 09/01/2013 |
| Ad. Gr. 3-5. Rain-forest monkeys like to nosh on a nice cocoa pod, but it's the goo surrounding the cocoa beans that appeals, not the beans themselves, which they spit onto the ground. Happily for chocolate lovers, discarded beans seed a new cocoa tree, thus keeping cocoa-loving primates of all ilk satisfied. Here Stewart traces the journey to chocolate treats in reverse, starting with cocoa beans, which develop in pods, which "can't form without flowers," which can't bloom without leaves, etc., all the way back to the monkeys that scatter the beans that produce the trees. It's initially an elegant framework, with each step explained in a couple of short, accessible paragraphs. However, the narrative gets tangled several times when insects come into play and explanations lengthen to fully explain the process. By the time the role of midges in flower pollenization is covered, or the role of coffin flies in controlling leaf cutter ant predation, the momentum is broken. Wong's watercolor illustrations, much in the style of Let's Read and Find Out Science series books, offer detailed close-ups of important stages of cocoa development and of the critters that various aid or impede its growth. The cartoon bookworms kibitzing in each recto corner supply additional levity but are also somewhat distracting. This title covers the same ground as Adrian Forsyth's How Monkeys Make Chocolate; however, with its shorter page count and lower reading level, No Monkeys could be a good alternate for use in many classrooms. EB. 32p. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIV. OF ILLINOIS, c2013. |
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| Horn Book | 01/01/2014 |
| Primary. Starting with the finished products (cake! candy bars! hot fudge sundaes!) and working backward, Stewart and Young explain where chocolate comes from. The expository text begins with cocoa beans, which are dried and processed by humans, then the story moves back to cocoa pods, which come from cocoa flowers pollinated by midges, going all the way back to monkeys dropping cocoa seeds on the rainforest floor and thus allowing new trees to grow. In this way, readers deduce the interdependence of life in the rainforest rather than relying on didactic telling from the authors. Full-bleed ink and watercolor illustrations zoom in on each step along the way, lending visual support to help identify potentially unfamiliar plants and animals. In a corner of each spread, two little worms provide a running commentary, with knee-slappers and puns galore. A concluding note describes the fragility of the environment, and an author's note from Stewart outlines her writing process. A "What You Can Do to Help" page lists general suggestions for conservation. betty carter. 32pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2014. |
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| Horn Book Guide | 05/01/2014 |
| 2. K-3. Stewart and Young explain where chocolate comes from: working backward from cocoa beans (dried and processed by humans) to cocoa pods (which come from cocoa flowers pollinated by midges) to monkeys dropping cocoa seeds on the rainforest floor. Full-bleed ink and watercolor illustrations zoom in on each step along the way; in a corner of each spread, two little worms provide humorous running commentary. bc. 32pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2014. |
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| School Library Journal | 09/01/2013 |
| Gr 4-6--Chocolate and monkeys may seem worlds apart, but as Stewart and Young point out in their clear text, it takes monkeys (and other critters) to scatter the cocoa beans (seeds) throughout the rain forest. Munching on the soft, tasty pulp lining the pods as they travel through the trees, the monkeys discard the not-so-tasty beans, scattering them indiscriminately. In a format slightly reminiscent of the old "This Is the House That Jack Built," the authors present a simply written look at a complex ecosystem encompassed by one tree's life cycle. Flowers, midges, leaves, maggots, ants, lizards, roots, and more all form parts of the process of producing the cocoa beans so essential to our candy bars and brownies. In a lighter note, two "bookworms" provide an amusing counterpoint in a tiny triangle at the bottom of the page. Wong's realistic watercolors stretch across the pages in warm cocoa browns and soft greens, with occasional splashes of rosy pink. Appended is a page pleading for more rain-forest preservation (not much mention of cocoa "plantations"), another with lists of things to do to make one's life "greener," and still another with an author's note on the origin and development of the book. For slightly older readers, a more traditional look may be found in Adrianna Morganelli's staid The Biography of Chocolate (Crabtree, 2006), but Stewart's book has more visual appeal (and then there are those monkeys...). Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY. 32p. SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2013. |
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9781580892872,dl.it[0].title
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