by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 25, 2009   Last Updated: March 14, 2010

It's a true story. Rickie was a female monkey that arrived at Jane Goodall's institute and sanctuary in 1993 (according to a postscript to the book written by Jane Goodall herself). It shares the URL for Goodall's web site, and reminds readers that they can help real chimpanzees in the world. But the rest of the book delivers an intense drama about a surprising friendship between a monkey and a dog - along with its heart-tugging message.

The book opens with a beautiful peach-colored background, representing the African sky at sunset. The silhouettes of monkeys perch on the limbs of a tree, while a mother monkey holds her baby Rickie. "She carried her from place to place," writes Goodall, and "she comforted her when she was hurting or frightened." But we'll never know if Rickie had brothers or sisters, Goodall warns, "because one day - probably at first light...a loud bang disturbed the peace of the forest." There's the same peach-colored sky, but the silhouette is now a man with a gun. And Rickie's mother lies on the ground, eyes closed, while Rickie screams.

"She could not help Rickie now. She would never help her again."

It's a gut-wrenching scene, but Goodall is dealing with the facts from an all-too-real world. "The hunter seized Rickie and pushed her into a tiny basket, while the infant chimpanzee, who didn't understand, went on screaming and screaming for her mother." The next illustration shows the monkey in a cage, suspended on a pole, being carried away against a sunrise that is now an angry pink. The monkey is frightened, hungry, and wounded by shotgun pellets, but "however much she cried, there was no one to help." Eventually she's taken to a market in Congo, where the silhouette of another man points out that it's illegal to sell infant monkeys. "The tall man" brings Rickie home - wrapped up in his jacket - where she's sniffed at suspiciously by the man's shaggy dog.

"She needed love," Goodall writes, but when the man leaves on a business trip, the monkey reached out to the only adult she could find - the shaggy dog. Despite the drama in the book's beginning, Goodall is building up to a cheerier ending. The dog's name is Henri, and "At first he was scared - each time she reached out, he growled a little and moved away." But eventually the monkey was riding his back while the dog scavenged the city for food scraps.

There's an adorable drawing of the sleeping dog...curled up around the sleeping monkey. Eventually, the monkey is sent to the sanctuary for chimpanzees, and she made "many new friends." The dog is sad to lose his companion, so his owner buys him another dog that can serve as his new friend.

"So everyone was happy at the end."

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.