Night Monkey, Day Monkey: 1

Product Information

Two monkeys that live in a jungle, wake up at different times of the day that they are used to, and retell what they noticed. One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading. Night Monkey Day Monkey is a very simple yet charming children’s book by the same author who brought us the children’s classic ‘The Gruffalo’. The book revolves around two monkeys Day Monkey and Night Monkey who as the names suggest sleep and wake at different hours of the day. Each monkey takes the other on a journey through the worlds they live in. The story starts at night, when Night Monkey wakes Day Monkey from his sleep by whispering “you can’t catch me”. Day Monkey then chases her and experiences the Jungle as he’s never seen it before. Night Monkey teaches him all about Fireflies, Bats and other things that only come out at night. The story then takes us the other way, in the early morning Day Monkey wakes Night Monkey by whispering “you can’t catch me” in her ear. Day Monkey takes Night Monkey on a similar journey, teaching her all about Parrots, Chimpanzees, and other things that are out in the day. The two Monkeys decide that they do not like the others worlds but decide to meet every day at dusk when it’s not quite day and it’s not quite night, to share some bananas and be with their new friend.

The book represents concepts that children can relate to, they are discovering their surroundings just like the monkeys. The day monkey is learning new things about their jungle in the night, such as; shadows and night monkey learns about the features of a jungle in the day, such as; the brightness of the sun.My real breakthrough was THE GRUFFALO, again illustrated by Axel. We work separately - he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow - but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes. Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers. This is a fabulous book for all little dino fans with a sense of humour. Ten freshly hatched baby dinosaurs sneak away from Mum to explore and immediately get into all sorts of trouble with other, bigger dinosaurs, flesh-eating plants, geysers and volcanos. I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him).

I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married.Before Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country; the best one was in Italian about pasta.

I also continued to write “grown-up” songs and perform them in folk clubs and on the radio, and have recently released two CDs of these songs. I really enjoy writing verse, even though it can be fiendishly difficult. I used to memorise poems as a child and it means a lot to me when parents tell me their child can recite one of my books.