There's just something deliciously charming about "Monkey on the Run" and it begins with the sort of Richard-Scarry-Esque obsession that Leo has with all sorts of totally cool retro vehicles, inventive and amazing and almost as important as the central characters in this story themselves.
So the story begins with Papa and Little Monkey stuck in traffic. We've all been there, right? But Little Monkey is impatient, and decides it's time to swing off and get home the quick way.
Abandoning their rather fantastic Banana-shaped motorbike and sidecar, Papa Monkey and Little Monkey swing along using different vehicles as jumping-off points to finally reach Mama Monkey at home.
It's a wordless story, and that gives Leo ample opportunity to showboat his amazing artistic skills. Everything on every spread feels like it's about to leap into life, start moving of its own accord. He has a peerless eye for detail, light and design and gives everything that glorious super-shiny 1950s USA kind of glimmer about it, from the clothes that the hilarious animal characters wear, to their rides.
The sheer joy of wordless books is letting kids take over, to describe the narrative themselves as they follow Little Monkey's journey home.
A real treat this! You'd be bananas to miss it!
Sum this book up in a sentence: A gloriously artistic and stylish romp for a pair of engaging monkeys as they swing and sway their way through the traffic back home in time for tea.
"Monkey on the Run" by Leo Timmers is out now, published by Gecko Press (kindly supplied for review)