Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children's Literature)
This text-less sequence of hilarious events begins on the jacket, as a juggler tosses balls in the air, a monkey on his shoulder. The monkey escapes across the front endpapers and approaches a bunch of bananas on the next spread, the juggler in hot pursuit. As we turn to the “beginning” pages, the delighted monkey eats a stolen banana, tossing the peel aside. Then the wild consequences really begin to mount. As the monkey leads the chase, the inevitable slip on the peel leads to a falling painter, a loose grocery cart and some dogs, scattered bodies, a skate-boarding judge, a baby in danger, a wild crash, and flying bananas for all. Small is not satisfied to create a simple sequential visual adventure; his rather loose, black line and transparent watercolors guarantee bedlam by stuffing each scene with the full panoply of city details, including a variety of buildings, an upset cart, and scores of other flying objects, along with clearly delineated characters. And, in fine cinema graphic form, he creates anticipation of each page turn’s next adventure by subtly introducing in advance a piece of the next scene. The visual tale he tells is great slapstick comedy. The only words are the various signs of the city that are passed in the action. The back endpapers offer a map on which to follow the race, complete with a numbered key. Great fun! 2006, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $16.95. Ages 4 to 8.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2006 (Vol. 74, No. 19))
In a tour de force of visual sequencing captioned only by a set of rhyming street and shop signs, Small sets up a hilarious chain of events along a busy city street. The action starts on the front endpapers as a street performer's monkey snatches a banana from a fruit stand and tosses the peel onto the sidewalk. This sets off an escalating ruckus that moves around the block (and is actually mapped out on the rear endpapers), involving pedestrians, a painter atop a ladder, cars and trucks, dogs (lots of dogs), much flying through the air and a hurtling carriage with a delighted baby on board (for part of the way, anyway). Composed in fluent pen lines and watercolor brushwork, the scenes are chock full of comically dismayed characters, and surprisingly easy to follow despite the frenetic activity. In addition, for all its brevity, the text sets up a strong background rhythm-"4-Way Stop / Barber Shop / One-Way Street / NO BARE FEET"-that complements the breathless visual pacing. Ultimately, a disastrous encounter between a careening garbage truck and an entire shipment of bananas brings the tale back to where it began, whereupon all of the participants, human and otherwise, gather in a closing spread for an amicable bananafest. More fun than a barrel of . . . well. 2006, Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster, 48p, $16.95. Category: Picture book. Ages 5 to 8. Starred Review. © 2006 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Jaime Jeanne Meadows (Library Media Connection, January 2007)
A series of calamitous events, caused by a monkey who runs away from a street entertainer, is the gist of this story. The only words used are street signs. Although the illustrations are in muted tones, they show the motion and chaotic activity. A few pages almost had too much going on to follow the storyline. The people portrayed in the book are true to life and the illustrator captures the appropriate expressions. And the monkey is a true rapscallion; it is evident that he is enjoying the chaos he has created. Younger readers will need adult help to follow the story, but some of the pages are good for developing prediction skills. Additional Selection. 2006, Simon & Schuster, 48pp., $16.95 hc. Ages 3 to 9.

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, December 2006 (Vol. 60, No. 4))
This cleverly crafted picture book follows a domino-fall sequence of mishaps around a city block. It all starts when a performer’s monkey bolts, grabbing a banana from a produce stand and carelessly discarding the peel; a dismounted motorcyclist slips on the peel and bounces off the bottom of a painter’s ladder, the painter plummets into a passing shopping cart and caroms off a barber pole, the barber pole falls and pulls leashes out of the dog-walker’s hands. Subsequent events involve a speeding biker, an unattended skateboard, gray-suited officials from City Hall, an eager baby in a loose buggy, and a stinky dump truck, which accumulate in a crescendo of chaos that resolves into a happy confluence of tied-up ends (everybody is reunited with their charges, pets, and vehicles) and banana-eating participants. This is a mesmerizing mosaic of effervescent disaster, and David Small has managed to treat it as visual nonsense, ensuring that the absurdity operates within an understandable if upendable structure (a helpful map tracing the route of the ripples of disaster appears on the closing endpaper). His smoky, elastic lines have a circus-worthy flexibility with a touch of sardonic humor, and he tucks in extra jokes at several junctures (the signposters, for instance, are Laurel and Hardy). Though this initially looks to be a wordless book, careful perusal reveals that each page contains a sign prominently posted, and the signs come in couplets (“4-Way Stop // Barber Shop”), an element that adds pleasure for kids just embarking on reading without being vital to understanding the glorious chain of unraveling. Viewers need to make sure to start from the beginning, since the story opens on the front endpapers, but they’ll relish the pandemonium and enjoy hunting through the pages to explore all the signs of impending and previous wrecks. Review Code: R* -- Recommended. A book of special distinction. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2006, Simon, 44p., $16.95. Ages 5-8 yrs.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2007)
Take a juggler, a mischievous monkey, a banana peel, and a man on a ladder, and put them on a busy city street. What will happen? Small's energetic line-and-watercolor paintings take us through a circuit of slapstick chaos. Armstrong's concept could have been presented wordlessly, but instead she slyly gives textual signs of impending disaster. The final endpapers reveal the larger picture. Category: Picture Books. 2006, Simon, 48pp, 16.95. Ages 4 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.