Monkey Island

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it was a fast read and paced well. On the other, it was very politically correct, which can be shallow in its own way. The story follows eleven year old Cody. One year ago his father was laid off, and now Cody has sunken to the level of street urchin, abandoned by both his impoverished parents. The backstory is a little implausible with the details left vague. The... Read Full Review

Monkey Island is a thrilling novel about young boy named Clay Garrity who is abandoned by his mother and father. He is trying to survive by eating scraps out of his neighbor's trash but one night he gets caught. Once he gets caught he tells his neighbor about his situation and when she mentions calling the police he runs out into the streets of New York where he meets his new best friends, Buddy and Calvin. They are both homeless... Read Full Review

I read this book when I was about eleven or twelve, and at seventeen it still sticks out as one of the most powerful books of my childhood. Very few young adult books capture the beauty and the pain that Monkey Island does. So many young adult novels are pure fluff. Monkey Island, however, deals with a topic very serious: homelessness. By using an eleven year old boy as the main character, it made being homeless seem... Read Full Review

I give Monkey Island five stars because it was a wondeful book and I really enjoyed reading it. I would recommend this book to anybody. The beginning is a little hard to get into and the story is sad but the ending is really happy. The book was well written and I hope you read it.

I am so thankful that I found this book. I read it in one sitting and am looking forward to sharing it with my 6th-graders. Many of my students are only a few steps away from Clay's street hut. It is for them that I want to shed a light of hope. I think this book can help me do that for them. It is also a great book to read to children who have what they need to stay warm and well-fed. It will afford them the opportunity to... Read Full Review