Thursday, May 2, 2013

MONKEY AND ELEPHANT'S WORST FIGHT EVER by Michael Townsend

Townsend, Michael. Monkey & Elephant’s Worst Fight Ever! Illus. By Michael Townsend. Alfred A. Knopf, Mar. 2011. ISBN 0375857176. $15.99.

Monkey & Elephant’s Worst Fight Ever! is about best friends Monkey and Elephant. Monkey goes to Elephant’s house and assumes that he wasn’t invited to a secret costume party that Elephant was having. Things quickly escalate from there. Elephant gets even by giving the Bunny family the keys to Monkey’s house. Monkey responds by painting a face on Elephant’s rump while he’s sleeping. Tensions between Monkey and Elephant continue to escalate. Eventually, Monkey and Elephant are given an ultimatum: Monkey and Elephant must make up and hug before they can come home. Monkey and Elephant argue for a while before Monkey learns that Elephant wasn’t having a party; he was hosting a surprise wrestling tournament for Monkey. Elephant and Monkey apologize to each other and come home. They fix everything they broke and they hold the wrestling tournament.

Some of Monkey and Elephant’s actions struck me as childish. Monkey and Elephant’s fight was based on a misunderstanding that could have been resolved if Monkey had asked Elephant what he was doing. Monkey and Elephant were overly dramatic:

I’m sorry!
I’m sorry too!
Not as sorry as I am.
No, I’m more sorry!
No, I’m more sorry!

I did not like this book much. The characters were vindictive. They got revenge on each other. Some of what they did involved innocent bystanders. No wonder the other animals wanted them gone! They were ruining the peacefulness of the island. This book is about friendship and how you should not jump to conclusions. If you don’t understand something, you should ask questions.

Carly Krewitsky

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