A calm woods turns into a theater of robotic chaos and hilarious rivalry when a monkey with a big ego takes on a bunny who just wants peace.
Jamie Smart, who won the Illustrated Children’s Book Award in 2024, brings this high-energy world to life through dynamic graphic novels. The series follows the ongoing feud between Bunny and Monkey, featuring a cast of eccentric friends like Pig the superspy and Skunky the inventor. While the group often faces bizarre threats, such as glitches in reality or robotic mayhem, the heart of the story is the comedic tension between the animal neighbors. Educators will find plenty of material here to keep students engaged, as there are currently 13 primary works in the collection.
These books are a fantastic resource for challenged readers because the artwork does so much of the storytelling. Using full-color comic panels, the books allow students to pick up on narrative cues through character expressions and onomatapoeia. The language is kept accessible through simple and compound sentences, while more complex words like “simulation” are supported by the illustrations to help clarify meaning. English language learners benefit from the consistent art style and recurring characters, which helps them feel like experts on the series as they move from one volume to the next. In a school setting, these stories can spark great discussions about innovation and how the characters work together to solve unexpected problems.
Total Books in Series: 13 Best Starting Point: Bunny vs Monkey
