Midway Monkey Madness by Sarah Stephens follows Beppo, Superman's pet monkey. Beppo took a trip to the fair. While he was at the fair a huge evil Gorilla named Gorilla Grodd was causing trouble at the animal sideshow. Beppo has to work to save the fair using both his mind and his super powers.
Midway Monkey Madness is a super funny beginning chapter book. There was just enough action but not enough to scare young kids. The pictures were great because they went along with the story to illustrate the action in the plot. The author did a fantastic job of creating a fun read with action words set in a large colorful to help the reader create more inflection.
I read this together with my daughter because it looked like a quick read and we had such a fun time reading it. She did spooky laughs and loud ROOOAR's and POW POW POW's where the author had highlighted them and it made reading the book so much fun.
Appropriateness: This is a fantastic book for young readers. I would recommend it both as a read aloud (or a read together, it's fun to do one page Mom and the next page Child with this one) and as a book for readers straddling the divide between picture books and chapter books. While this book will be enjoyed by girls (and mine loved it) I'd like to highlight this book (and the entire series) as one that boys will love and adore. It's comic book like with full illustrations super hero characters and fun plot will be sure to engage even the most reluctant of readers. It is written at a second grade level with a lexile of 480 and a guided reading level of J
Netgally provided by the publisher.
