Customer Reviews

Monkey Island

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I don't really like non fiction books, but this one was okay. I liked how at the end it ended up happy and he even saw Buddy again. I didn't like how in the first chapter it was confusing because it kept flashing back from the past to the present. I would recomend it to a friend who would want to know about homelessness and likes books where the story could really happen. That is my review of Monkey Island C.B.Fox

I am so thankful that I found this book. I read it in one sitting and am looking forward to sharing it with my 6th-graders. Many of my students are only a few steps away from Clay's street hut. It is for them that I want to shed a light of hope. I think this book can help me do that for them. It is also a great book to read to children who have what they need to stay warm and well-fed. It will afford them the opportunity to get to know someone their age that must go without and take chances that have very uncertain outcomes.

Paula Fox does an amazing job depicting homelessness in her book Monkey Island. Clay Garrity, an eleven year old boy, is left to fend for himself after his pregnant mother disappears. He meets two homeless men, Buddy and Calvin, who become his new family on the street. They care for him as best they can but the cold and lack of food are too much for Clay and he has to be taken to a hosiptal. Now he has to depend on Social Services to find out what happened to his mother and his new sibling.

I thought that Fox's description of Clay's life on the street was exceptional. Her language really flowed nicely and I felt like I was experiencing what Clay was. Fox also had the major dramatic question, "What happened to Clay's mother?". This question was the driving force while I read this book. I was so intrigued that I finished the book in one sitting.

The only problem I had with this book was the ending. I didn't think it was realistic. Fox had all of these well portrayed, complex issues throughout the book and the ending just seemed very simplistic compared to everything else.

However, overall I really enjoyed this book. I thought that it was well written, that language flowed together, and that it provided a realistic look at what life would be like on the streets.

I think this book would be a great tool to help teachers to portray homelessness and/or poverty to their students. This book would really force children to look at and understand the social problems that our society has and help them to relate to, and sympathize with, these problems.

I read this book when I was about eleven or twelve, and at seventeen it still sticks out as one of the most powerful books of my childhood. Very few young adult books capture the beauty and the pain that Monkey Island does. So many young adult novels are pure fluff. Monkey Island, however, deals with a topic very serious: homelessness. By using an eleven year old boy as the main character, it made being homeless seem more personal and real. I recommend this book entirely to pre-teens, teens, or even adults. It is a wonderful story that truly has no age range.

Monkey Island is a novel which presents issues of homelessness in many layers. Communities on the street are shown as sometimes being safer than indoor shelters. Social service agencies are given their share of criticism and praise, with the truth that their effectiveness often depends on the roll of the dice that is which case worker a child or family has. Through it all, Clay guides us on his perilous journey quietly and perceptively. Monkey Island raises more question than it answers, which is very appropriate for the young audience who will encounter it. They need not be given pat responses to complex social problems and this novel forces reflection and hopefully in some, positive action.

I have always loved this story. It's a quick, easy read, but it packs a powerful punch to the heart. My students LOVE it. It's sad, but it says so much about the human spirit and hope and second chances. It also opens our eyes to an issue that is too often overlooked. This is VERY worth the read.

I'm sorry to say that you really messed up by sending me a copy of monkey island that you stated was in good condition. I am extremely disappointed and probably will not trust your judgement again. The book was damaged and with all of the vowels in the first two chapters crossed out with pen making it very impossible to read. My 6th grade grandaughter needed to read the book for an honor's class and could not get another copy in time for that class.....Shame on whoever stated that the book was in good condition

Young Clay Garrity has been left behind. His father lost his job and left the family, including his pregnant mother. Now, for whatever reason, his mother has also left. Clay must deal with living on his own in fifth grade. He stops going to school and spends a lot of time scared and lonely. Another family moves into his apartment, and he has no place left for himself. This is a realistic tale of what it might mean to be a homeless kid in a big city. No bad language, and Clay does some growing up.

Might open the eyes of spoiled children that another, sorrier world exists, and that the homeless are people too.

Monkey Island by Paula Fox is about a boy named Clay who wakes up one morning with his mom gone. Although he thinks she'll back sooner or later, she doesn't come back. Luckily, his mom leaves him money while she's gone. Unfortunately, the money doesn't last long and Clay ends up on the streets with his new friends Calvin, Gerald, and Buddy, learning to survive in the "wild". They live a traumatic and eye-opening life on the streets together. They had rough tines with a bunch of teenagers saying "Monkey Island' while laughing at them. Sadly, all four of them get beaten bad especially Buddy, being called out of his name. Though the cold and snow, Clay ends up with the pneumonia and in the hospital.

When Clay ends up in the hospital with pneumonia, Mrs. Greg, an agent of the Social Service, comes to interview him. Mrs. Greg asks Clay, "Do you know what Social Service people do?"

Being free-minded, Clay replies,"Yes. Where they don't help you until after three months or even longer? My mom did that." Clay didn't want foster parents but he knew had to deal with it. Though his foster parents, Mr. and Mrs. Biddles buy him clothes and feeds him well, he's not so happy. So will he ever find his mom?

Fox's Monkey Island teaches an important lesson of the need to be satisfied with what you have and quit complaining about how you can't get what you want. Fox has an obvious message in her writing. This novel would be good for teenagers and even the whole family. Think about it, how would you feel if your mother or father left you alone and never came back? You wouldn't believe how much you need to learn.

I give Monkey Island five stars because it was a wondeful book and I really enjoyed reading it. I would recommend this book to anybody. The beginning is a little hard to get into and the story is sad but the ending is really happy. The book was well written and I hope you read it.