Grumpy Monkey Party Time!

"Grumpy Monkey" is my son's favorite book right now, so we've been eagerly awaiting the sequel since it was announced. However, it was rather disappointing. There is a subtle repetition to the buildup of Grumpy Monkey that works great with children—but it was nearly wiped away here, despite great opportunities to weave it into the text. The illustrations seemed terribly rushed: it's hard to believe on some pages that these were final versions of Jim and Norman. The overarching message of Grumpy Monkey was much more powerful than the one presented here, even though Party Time seems to echo that message. All in all, stick to Grumpy Monkey, which is a great and very fun book.

My daughter (2 years old) loves Grumpy Monkey and the original book became her nightly bedtime story so when I saw there was a sequel, I preordered a book for the first time in my life. This book has now practically replaced the original as our bedtime story unless my daughter (I assume) is feeling nostalgic and wants the first book one night. She loves it. IF she could write this review, she'd give it 6 stars out of 5.So why not 5 stars? Well, even though the target audience loved it, I'm still the adult reading it every night and I got beef. First, the writing. The story is fine but there are several times where the pacing, rhythm, or cadence just seems off. It also lacks a lot of the repetition of the first which makes it harder for my daughter to memorize and read along. Second, a lot of the gags are visual and/or puns which aren't really bad but aren't great for my daughter's age. She's not going to get why the rabbit is sitting at the food table with a sign that's labeled "fresh meat". The last issue is my most petty. In the middle of the story, all the animals are dancing which means there's a fold out page. So both the right and left page fold outward, doubling the books size for one line of text and a really big picture. It's cute but it's a royal pain to open that while lying down and holding the book above me and my daughter's heads every night.All in all, the books still a great book and I'm being really picky here with my criticisms. I'll still be getting the next Grumpy Monkey book when/if this turns into a trilogy.

We loved the original Grumpy Monkey, but this new one feels like someone was pushing the author/s to get another book ready for the printer ASAP and grab dat sweet sweet money while the irons hot. Poor quality drawings, inferior storyline, inferior format. I know it’s just a kids book but I really like reading the original to my daughter - the drawings are fun and its underlying message of “sometimes it’s ok to not be ok” is an incredibly important one to learn. Compare to GM Party Time, the core message of which is basically “dancing at parties is dumb lol”. Not even close.

Grumpy Monkey is one of our favorite picture books. Unfortunately, Grumpy Monkey Party Time! just didn't quite live up to its predecessor. It's still a cute one, but there's just something missing that I can't put my finger on. I do like the message about social pressure and how it's okay to be different and how you may just help others who are struggling as well by being your true self.

What I love about the Grumpy Monkey series is that it focuses on individuality. In the first book, it dealt with emotions -- that it's okay to feel different than other people (or animals), even if that emotion is, well, grumpy. This second book deals with social interactions -- specifically dance parties. As someone that never felt comfortable at events like dance parties, this really spoke to me. It's okay to not like dancing, especially if there are snacks around, and I think that's a great lesson to teach for shy and introverted souls.The artwork is sharp and hilarious, and the writing is great too! Highly recommended for all future wallflowers!

I think the author could have used a different bird other than an Oxpecker. It got laughs from the adults but I don't necessarily want my 7 year old grandson to go to school talking about an Oxpecker.....it could be misunderstood.

Great Buck we have both of the grumpy monkey books that are available I’m currently following the author because it’s so well written that I want to be able to purchase more of these books for my four-year-old daughter. Great storyline great artwork.

Most notably this is missing my daughter's favorite part that was in the first book. She loves when we get to the red page in the original book where he exclaims "I'M NOT GRUMPY!". It was in the Christmas book but is missing from here as well as the Up All Night book. It's an overall cute book but does not hold my daughter's attention as easily as the original book.

Our son loves the first book and can’t get enough of it. This book, however, feels like a copycat wrote it. The language is awkward and doesn’t flow, the format with two pages you need to unfold is not suitable for young children. The storyline is frankly boring. The authors had a good success with the first book and it feels like they didn’t put much thought into the second one, hoping to ride the success wave of The Grumpy Monkey. Real shame. I gave two stars (not one) because of the illustrations - they are sweet.

I have to admit that I have not seen or read this book as it was gift for my grandchildren who live an ocean away. But, I can say that they were thoroughly delighted with the book. I had already purchased Grumpy Monkey and Grumpy Monkey Up All Night for them. It was my granddaughter who pointed out that they did not have the party book. So of course I ordered it immediately.

This is my grandkids favourite book hands down. I can't tell enough people how great this book is. The author and illustrator have the cutest main character interacting with his other animal friends, while giving the storyline a moral for the readers to relate to. I will be looking for more books written by this team.

The book itself is great! It’s the second grumpy monkey book I’ve bought, my niece loves them. HOWEVER it arrived with bent/folded pages and the dust sleeve is also crinkled. It’s too late for me to return and get a new one for her birthday so I’m kind of irritated by that.

My grandson liked it so much he had his Father read it to me on the phone.