The Best Little Monkeys in the World

The Best Little Monkeys in the World, Natalie Standiford, illus by Hilary Knight.  ISBN: 978-0394986166  

Read July 17

Published 1987

 

Remembered from childhood and re-read.  "Mischievous" monkeys get up to all sorts of horribly messy trouble while their useless babysitter chats on the phone endlessly, but when the evening draws to a close and the sitter is fast asleep on the couch, the good-natured siblings put equal effort into (unsupervised and un-asked) cleaning up their mess, straightening out the home, and putting themselves to bed.  No one gets into any trouble when the parents return, none the wiser, to a clean house and a clueless but happy babysitter.

 

I was surprised to see this in the library recently - I remembered it fondly from my grandparents' house from my visits there.  I had always liked it because the monkey siblings were very active and imaginative and got into a lot of messes, but not maliciously.  That was a nice unforseen alternative to "bad" mess-making kids, or "good" quiet and wussy uninteresting kids.  I also very much liked that they were proactive (and competent) about cleaning up after themselves in order to keep their fun going.  As an adult, I'm a bit horrified at the message and the idea that these little berserkers were swift enough to bamboozle their parents into continuing to use the same worthless babysitter, but as a kid, I thought it made excellent sense.