The "Great Recession" of 2008 has struck the United States. Calista Snipe's family is adversely affected by the recession. Her father loses his job as a college professor and although Calista's mother continues to work part time, the family's income is greatly reduced. When a very rare monkey, a gibbon, escapes from the local zoo, Calista decides she will catch the gibbon and give the reward money to her father. In her search for the escaped gibbon, Calista enlists the help of her best friends, Skyler McCray and Tabitha Tyler.
Skyler and Calista joined forces when they were in fourth grade to solve the mystery of the lost purse. Now, two years later, they believe they are up to the task of finding and capturing Papillon, the missing black-crested gibbon. They soon discover that other parties are interested in capturing the monkey, and these parties are not happy to find that Cali and Sky are in the competition to win the reward money.
To Catch a Monkey explores the impact of the 2008 recession on a middle class family, peer bullying, beginning awareness of puberty for later elementary grade children, and the strengthening friendship between a sixth-grade boy and girl.
The "Great Recession" of 2008 has struck the United States. Calista Snipe's family is adversely affected by the recession. Her father loses his job as a college professor and although Calista's mother continues to work part time, the family's income is greatly reduced. When a very rare monkey, a gibbon, escapes from the local zoo, Calista decides she will catch the gibbon and give the reward money to her father. In her search for the escaped gibbon, Calista enlists the help of her best friends, Skyler McCray and Tabitha Tyler.
Skyler and Calista joined forces when they were in fourth grade to solve the mystery of the lost purse. Now, two years later, they believe they are up to the task of finding and capturing Papillon, the missing black-crested gibbon. They soon discover that other parties are interested in capturing the monkey, and these parties are not happy to find that Cali and Sky are in the competition to win the reward money.
To Catch a Monkey explores the impact of the 2008 recession on a middle class family, peer bullying, beginning awareness of puberty for later elementary grade children, and the strengthening friendship between a sixth-grade boy and girl.
To Catch A Monkey
by
Richard Read
To Catch a Monkey
Written by Richard Read
(Dedicated to his granddaughter, Alyssa Gastaldo and
his grandson, Davis Gastaldo)
Copyright, February 2014
First printing, CreateSpace, March 2014
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or gibbons is purely by coincidence. Photographs used to illustrate some of the text are free domain pictures from the Internet and some drawings by the author.
To Catch A Monkey
An Introduction for Young Readers
In 2012, I wrote a short novel (The Mystery of the Old Purse) for my granddaughter who was then in fourth grade. The story was about a girl, Calista Snipe, somewhat like my granddaughter, a girl who was friendly, engaging, gregarious (of an outgoing, friendly, sociable nature), intelligent, and had a sense of humor well beyond her years. Since I also had a grandson a few years older than my youngest granddaughter, I included a boy in the story, Skyler McCray, who had similar personality characteristics to the girl in the story and to my grandson. Both children in the story shared the same experiences, adventures, risks, and in fact it took both to solve the mystery of the old purse.
One of the peculiar occurrences that sometimes happen when writing a story is that the writer begins to view his characters as if they are real people. That occurrence happened to me when writing about Calista and Skyler. Consequently, I became interested in writing another story about Cali and Sky but about them when they were a few years older. The result of my endeavor is this story, To Catch A Monkey.
Although the thread that holds the story together is the search for a monkey, (a rare black crested gibbon who escapes from a local zoo), the story has other factors that are equally important. Because Calista and Skyler are older (now twelve), they now have somewhat more freedom to be on their own. Nonetheless, they continue to need some support from parents and other trusted adults in their community. Cali and Sky are also on the cusp (the edge) of puberty, a very exciting time of physical growth. Some of the emotional growth that accompanies puberty plays a small but crucial role in the story, probably more so for Otis Huff, another boy in the neighborhood who is a few years older than Sky and Cali.
Since Sky and Cali are growing older, they are becoming more aware of the outside world and how it can have an effect on their lives. The great recession which started in 2008 in the United States plays a role in this story. Young readers might like to do a little independent research on this event.
Finally, there is one chapter that has little to do with the children’s search for the escaped gibbon. I wrote a similar chapter in The Mystery of the Old Purse. There is a good reason for these chapters, however. I always try to make my stories about young people and adolescents as true to life as I can. And since school is a major factor in any young person’s life, I always include some experiences that my characters have when they are in school. Otherwise, it would be like writing a story about a young person who lives and goes to school in the United States but never mentioning his or her home life with his or her parents and any siblings that she or he might have.
Since I worked for many years as a teacher and a school counselor, I have a great respect for men and women who are excellent teachers. Consequently, I have tried in my stories-for-young-people to give an example of a teacher who cares for his/her students and for his/her field of learning (in this case, science), and who realizes that to make the subject come alive for his students he must involve them physically and mentally. He must help create in his students the qualities of observation, inquisitiveness, and the confidence to problem solve. I like to think that I have portrayed Mr. Arturo (in The Mystery of the Lost Purse) and Mr. Bartola (in To Catch a Monkey) as those kinds of teachers.
So, if you are ready to read and to use your dictionary when you encounter words that you don’t yet know, let me introduce you to Calista Snipe and Skyler McCray.
To Catch A Monkey
Chapter 1
(New word—grimaced: a facial gesture, a frown)
Calista Snipe sat at the breakfast table with her father. She took another swallow from her glass of orange juice and grimaced. She actually liked orange juice….but not in the morning right after leaving her nice warm snuggly bed because now the orange juice was cold and tasted bitter. It even made shivers run up and down her body. However, her mom and dad insisted. So, she drank her glass of orange juice, but she drank it first, before she ate her cereal, which was Captain Cin: puffed oats coated with cinnamon and brown sugar. She had found from experience that her orange juice would taste more bitter if she had it after her bowl of Captain Cin.
Her father, Craig, looked up from his newspaper and said, “Hurry up, Cali. The school bus will be here in ten minutes, and you haven’t started your cereal, yet.”
“I’m on it,” she replied, and swallowed the last of her orange juice, and then poured milk on her bowl of Captain Cin. Her father returned his attention to his newspaper.
Cali knew what her father was reading, and it wasn’t the headlines, or the sports page, or the stock reports, or the obituaries. It was the classifieds, and specifically the employment section.
Her father had been a high school math teacher. When an opening occurred in the math department at the local branch of the Ohio State University, Craig had applied and won the position of assistant professor of mathematics. He had worked for two years and was about to establish tenure when the “great recession” struck. Because of the recession, the university predicted a drop in enrolment believing that many parents of future students were going to become unemployed and consequently would not be able to afford the tuition for their children. Anticipating lower student enrolment, the university chose to reduce its teaching staff. Craig, who lacked seniority and had not yet gained tenure, was laid-off. He was now in his fifth month without employment.
While Calista crunched on spoonfuls of Captain Cin, she absentmindedly gazed at the front page of the newspaper that faced her while her father, seated across the table from Calista, and with the paper spread wide between his hands, studied the classified section.
Cali read the headline:
Congress Considers Financing Homeowners Facing Foreclosure
She did not understand what the headline meant primarily because she did not yet understand the meaning of the word foreclosure. She made a mental note to look up the word in her dictionary. Her eyes dropped to the bottom half of the front page. A smaller caption caught her attention:
Rare Monkey Takes a Hike
Cali pondered about the headline. So, a monkey took a hike? Big deal! Didn’t monkeys live in the jungle and they could take a walk, a hike, any time they pleased? Why would a monkey taking a walk be significant enough to warrant an article on the front page of the Pickerington Times News?
Her father put down the paper and got up from the table to pour himself another cup of coffee. Cali tugged the newspaper across the table so that she could read the smaller print of the article about the monkey. She read:
Gamekeepers at the Pickerington Zoo reported that a rare, black-crested gibbon was discovered missing from its cage. The monkey was nick-named Papillon because the gibbon like Henri Charriere, the infamous French prisoner, had a remarkable skill at escaping. The monkey had escaped from its cage four times over the past three years. However, Papillon-the monkey, had always been found within the confines of the zoo.
James Bennett, Director of the Pickerington Zoo, reported that Papillon had been sleeping in his cage along with five Rhesus Monkeys when the zoo closed for the evening. Papillon was not in the cage in the morning. This time, gamekeepers were not able to locate Papillon within the confines of the zoo after an extensive search. Bennett said he even delayed the opening of the zoo for two hours Monday morning to enable gamekeepers to conduct a thorough search. He said that he would request approval from the zoo’s board of directors for offering a reward for the safe return of the rare gibbon.
Three years ago, Gretta Givesalot, a local philanthropist, purchased a black-crested gibbon from Australia’s Sydney Public Zoo for five hundred thousand dollars, and then donated the gibbon to the Pickerington Zoo. Black-crested gibbons are on the world’s endangered species list and are known for their remarkable hooting calls.
Calista looked up from the newspaper. Her father was sipping from his coffee mug and staring out the kitchen side window. Cali knew he was probably watching for the school bus.
She spoke to her father. “Daddy, what is a phi-lan-thro-pist?”
She broke the long word into its syllables and hoped that she had pronounced the word correctly.
“That is a word used to describe someone who is wealthy and uses some of his or her money to financially help another person or a group of people. For example, a philanthropist might give money to a college, or to a hospital, or to cancer research.”
Cali said, “A phi-lan-thro-pist bought a monkey for five hundred thousand dollars and gave it to the Pickerington Zoo.”
“Really? Well, it had better be one smart monkey; otherwise, I’d say the philanthropist could have found a better use for his money.”
“The philanthropist is a she, Gretta Givesalot, and the monkey is very rare. It’s a black-crested gibbon, and it’s on the endangered species list.”
“Here comes the school bus, Cali,” her father said. “So, you’d better grab your knapsack and head for the corner quick, or you’ll be on the endangered child list. Because if you miss the bus, I won’t be a happy camper if I have to walk with you all the way to Pick Middle.”
“Consider me gone,” Cali said as she pulled on her knapsack full of schoolbooks and dashed for the door.
Small problems seem like big problems for the young protagonist. Any time one problem is solved or suddenly less of a big problem, a new problem pops up for her. Not all issues are equal; some require help, critical thinking, or creative problem-solving. Some are even more moral dilemmas than physical problems. The first problem to solve is about the bully from the bus. Then it's her family's financial stability. Then it's the missing monkey. Then it's what to do with the monkey after they find it. And so on. There are teachable moments throughout the story that ground it in the middle-grade category.
The plot is quite simple but touches on some more advanced topics. I was a little surprised that the story included drugs, kidnapping, and drinking. The bad guys are seen in their daily lives, which is not always the case with stereotypical bad guys!
At times I could tell that this was not the first book in the series, but it does stand on its own. If you want to get to know the characters more then you should probably start at the beginning of the series, but it was fine to start with this book as the author does a good job building the backstory, setting, characters, and story.
The pacing was good and the story kept me entertained, especially as it was a third-person narrative that kept switching perspectives. I really liked Otis' brief yet distinct character arc. It was nice to see Calista's friendship with Skyler (especially as they are different genders and that can sometimes be a point of tension).
This is a solid middle-grade book with easy-to-read writing. Sometimes there are word definitions to help out younger readers. Sometimes some pictures add to the descriptions and are fun to look at while reading.