Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb: Planet of the Apes prequel?

There is something sinister here… An individual monkey, banging a drum, using his thumb. This clever rhyming book by Al Perkins and Eric Gurney is catchy and fun to read. The single monkey then proceeding to a full hand, then two hands and more monkeys with more drums.

Published under the Dr Seuss imprint, it has a nice feel and sound. The artwork is unique, but familiar.

• Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb (Perkins/Gurney)
• 24 pages
• Random House Books for Young Readers
• ISBN-10: 0679890483
• ISBN-13: 978-0679890485

Kiddo perspective:

My daughter and son love this book. Maybe it is the easy storyline, maybe it is the ability to pound out the sounds on the book as we read it. Maybe they just like reading with me.

According to my son, 'none of those' is why he likes it. He likes it because he is always hungry and in page reads 'Hands pick the apples and hands pick the plums' to which my daughter replies 'dum ditty dum dum' in the style of the story and the repeats ad infinitum as she wanders around.

Parent Perspective:

Before you blink, there are daunting numbers, quoted as 'millions of monkeys'. This plurality of chimp means at least two million monkeys with two thumbs a piece. Four million thumbs, ready to beat a person to death. No less than sixteen million grimy bone fingers preparing to gouge and scrape as they pound existence to pulp on two million drums.

The kids find this book wonderful at bedtime. I find it nightmare inducing.

In case you are unclear, zoom in on the last page and witness the rolling cascading hill tops covered with a plague of monkeys all drumming out deaths in tandem while they smile and screech.

Planet of the apes, Old and New, do not hold a candle to this horrorshow.

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Source: This book was purchased at Goodwill where childrens books are reasonably priced and will not cause me to have sticker shock and die horrifically.