Looking for the Easy Life

Walter Dean Myers
HarperCollins (2011)
ISBN 9780060543754
Reviewed by Zoey Crane (age 6) and Nana for Reader Views (4/11)

This is a wonderful book full of gorgeous illustrations for children in 2nd to 4th grade. The author presents funny animals who decide to find the easy way out of living. However, they find that it isn’t as easy as it looks and there are always dangers lurking out there.  Through this funny and adventurous story comes a wonderful moral that all children can learn from.

Zoey:

“This was so funny. These rascal monkeys decided that they would listen to one monkey - Oswego Pete - that was tired of working so hard for his food and he was going to find a place where everything came to him. The big chief, Uh-Huh Freddie, knows that this isn’t a good idea. You have to work for what you want. But the other monkeys decided to follow Oswego Pete. After going looking for a while the monkeys come across a lion that is hungry and says ‘Monkeys are tasty.’ So Oswego Pete and the lion get into a fight and Oswego loses part of his tail. The monkeys also come across a hungry shark and some hippos. After all this, they said ‘we better go home, this isn’t fun.’”

Nana:

“Looking for the Easy Life”was such a wonderful story, with colorful pictures and action. The author writes in an African dialect which really makes the story more exciting. Zoey said the monkeys talked funny. There is a great learning opportunity with this story: things aren’t always as easy as they seem and it is better to work hard for what you want. The author states that if children don’t get the theme of the story, Uh-Huh Freddie explains it at the end.

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