Monkey on the Run

In this wordless book originally published in the Netherlands, a monkey father picks up his child in a zippy-looking banana motorcycle and promptly gets caught in traffic. Rather than pout, the little monkey scampers out of the sidecar and into a series of adventures on the fanciful, Richard Scarry-esque vehicles ahead of them, swiping a pastry from a lion king's luxury vehicle and swinging along the clothesline of a mobile laundry. Timmers (Gus's Garage) lines up his marvelous wheeled contraptions along a single plane, the better for readers to savor all their eccentric details: a three-vehicle circus act includes a badger being shot out of a cannon; a bustling, water-filled "Octobus" transports commuting sea creatures; and a series of taxis all convey similarly shaped cargo. Weathered textures lend each vehicle a comic gravitas, and the way the conveyances interact offers mechanical and character-based amusement. Through it all, the curious little monkey remains admirably cool and mischievously confident--and as delighted by the surroundings as readers will be. Ages 4-7. (Mar.)