Review Detail

When you start with a very tidy, very perfect town, you know it won’t stay as such for long. Add in the Great Apes, and APES A-GO-GO is a surefire disaster waiting to happen.

When the town’s mayor spots an out of place flower, he receives aid from Fussy Great Ape, a giant ape with a penchant for fussing over things. Unfortunately, after the flower issue is resolved, the mayor frets over the now-trampled garden. Fussy Great Ape calls out to the other Great Apes and Mucky Great Ape comes to the rescue. Mucky fixes the flowerbed, but not without covering the very tidy town in soil, thus continuing a domino effect in destruction. Can the Great Apes repair the damage to their tidy town?

Apes A-Go-Go is a hilarious “face-palm” tale that will leave you in giggles. From the very first page, you know things will get bad. But they don’t just get bad, they snowball to ultimate devastation in the most humorous way possible.

Roman Milisic threads together a fantastic story with an invaluable internal message about what is truly important in life: Life. It’s not the perfect streets, the prefect garden, or even the perfect town. What are truly important are the things that MAKE it a town. From the people, the sounds, the food, and the laughter, embracing life is most important. And Milisic portrays this message in a way that makes it enjoyable—and digestible—by young readers.

The illustrations, by A. Richard Allen, are of a cooler watercolor collection and have a simplistic, almost rough edge to them that I find endearing. Each of the Great Apes has a unique character flair that gives them personality.

Apes A-Go-Go is a wonderful addition to any young reader’s library. From the bumbling apes to the heart-warming internal lesson, your reader will surely start howling, “Bogo! Pogo! Apes A-Go-Go!”