Fourteen-year-old Jay Berry spends his summer trying to catch a group of monkeys that escaped from the circus in the mountains of Oklahoma.

What a book. I remember reading this when I was a kid, so it definitely ranks really high on the nostalgia scale. But I think that even if I wasn’t feeling all of that nostalgia, this would still be a really good book. I loved the writing. I loved the story. The relationships that Jay Berry had with all of his family (his sister, his parents, his grandparents) were amazing. I even liked Rowdy, and you know we’re not dog people over here. I appreciated the good values Jay Berry and Daisy were being taught. The childishness (in a good way) and innocence were refreshing.

I was thoroughly entertained by Jay Berry’s adventures in trying to catch the monkeys. I laughed. I cried. I saw the ending coming. I knew it was going to have to happen, but it was still so beautiful that some tears were shed (take into account that it was the middle of the night when things tend to be a little bit more dramatic than usual). I think anybody and everybody should read this book.