Melissa Stewart
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No Monkeys, No Chocolate

No Monkeys No Chocolate

by Melis­sa Stew­art
and Allen Young

illus by Nicole Wong

Charles­bridge, 2013

for ages 5–8

ISBN 978–1‑58089–287‑2

Pur­chase this book at your local inde­pen­dent book­seller or Amazon.com.

What does a capuchin mon­key have in com­mon with a pollen-suck­ing midge, an aphid-munch­ing anole lizard, and brain-eat­ing cof­fin fly mag­gots? Choco­late! Our favorite dessert comes from cocoa beans, which grow on cocoa trees in trop­i­cal rain forests. And those trees couldn’t sur­vive with­out help from a menagerie of rain for­est crit­ters. This book tells their story.

Honors and Awards

  • Ari­zona Grand Canyon Read­er Award Nominee
  • Authors for Earth Day’s Eco Book of the Month
  • Bank Street Col­lege Cen­ter for Chil­dren’s Lit­er­a­ture Best Children’s Books of the Year
  • CBC Best Books of the Year
  • Cook Prize for Best STEM Pic­ture Book Finalist
  • Coop­er­a­tive Children’s Book Cen­ter Choic­es List
  • Green Earth Book Award, Rec­om­mend­ed Book
  • Junior Library Guild selection
  • Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2013
  • Library Media Con­nec­tion, starred review
  • Nation­al Sci­ence Teach­ers Association-Children’s Book Council
  • Out­stand­ing Sci­ence Trade Book
  • Nation­al Sci­ence Teach­ers Asso­ci­a­tion Rec­om­mend­ed Title
  • Nerdy Book Club Book Award finalist
  • Read­ing Is Fun­da­men­tal STEAM Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Collection
  • Virginia’s Capi­tol Choic­es’ Note­wor­thy Title for Chil­dren and Teens

Reviews

  “This clever cir­cu­lar tale with a curi­ous title … take[s] chil­dren back­ward through the life cycle of the cocoa tree: pods, flow­ers, leaves, stems, roots and back to beans. The inter­de­pen­dence of plants and ani­mals is intro­duced in the process…. Grace­ful ink-and-water­col­or illus­tra­tions range from an expan­sive view of the rain for­est to a close-up of aphids…. Back­mat­ter helps young nat­u­ral­ists under­stand why con­ser­va­tion and care­ful stew­ard­ship is impor­tant. Children—and more than a few adults—will find this edu­ca­tion­al you-are-there jour­ney to the rain for­est fas­ci­nat­ing.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

  “The book will entice read­ers, but what will engage them is the use of two book­worms, which add com­men­tary on the impor­tant inter­ac­tion of rain for­est life that brings the best treat. Begin­ning with com­mon desserts, read­ers are led on a back­ward jour­ney to the ori­gin of choco­late. From cocoa beans to pods to flow­ers, the intri­cate cycle of the plant and the ani­mals who aid it are chron­i­cled using bright illus­tra­tions and clear, descrip­tive text…. The right mix of inter­est­ing and gross facts brings read­ers togeth­er to share the infor­ma­tion, and the humor pro­vid­ed by the book worms will induce laugh­ter and rereads of this title. Great for Com­mon Core State Stan­dards lit­er­ary non­fic­tion, this book will work well with sci­ence and geog­ra­phy units.” (Library Media Con­nec­tion, starred review)

“In a for­mat slight­ly rem­i­nis­cent of the old ‘This Is the House That Jack Built,’ the authors present a sim­ply writ­ten look at a com­plex ecosys­tem encom­passed by one tree’s life cycle. Flow­ers, midges, leaves, mag­gots, ants, lizards, roots, and more all form parts of the process of pro­duc­ing the cocoa beans so essen­tial to our can­dy bars and brown­ies. In a lighter note, two ‘book­worms’ pro­vide an amus­ing coun­ter­point in a tiny tri­an­gle at the bot­tom of the page. Wong’s real­is­tic water­col­ors stretch across the pages in warm cocoa browns and soft greens, with occa­sion­al splash­es of rosy pink.” (School Library Jour­nal)

“Begin­ning with com­mon desserts, read­ers are led on a back­wards jour­ney to the ori­gins of choco­late. From cocoa beans to pods to flow­ers, the intri­cate cycle of the plant and the ani­mals who aid it are chron­i­cled using bright illus­tra­tions and clear, descrip­tive text…. [T]wo book­worms ask ques­tions, tell jokes, and prompt read­ers to think ahead and pre­dict. The right mix of inter­est­ing and gross facts brings read­ers togeth­er to share the infor­ma­tion, and the humor pro­vid­ed by the book­worms will induce laugh­ter and rereads of this title. Great for Com­mon Core State Stan­dards lit­er­ary non­fic­tion, this book will work well in sci­ence and geog­ra­phy units.” High­ly Rec­om­mend­ed. (Library Media Con­nec­tion)

“An album of images and a sim­ple text reveal that birds’ feath­ers are far more ver­sa­tile than one might expect. Com­par­ing feath­ers to famil­iar objects, Stew­art reveals that birds use them in sur­pris­ing ways. Her two-lev­el text is head­lined with a com­par­i­son and includes a short para­graph of expla­na­tion. Laid out like a scrap­book, her words share a page or spread with accu­rate and appeal­ing water­col­or images of a bird (iden­ti­fied by species and loca­tion), the every­day object in ques­tion and the feath­er…. con­sid­er­able research by both author and illus­tra­tor is evi­dent. The com­bi­na­tion of thought­ful approach and care­ful craft­ing makes this an excel­lent resource for ear­ly nature study.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“This delight­ful, easy to read, and beau­ti­ful­ly illus­trat­ed chil­dren’s book describes the pro­duc­tion of choco­late from the cocoa tree. It explains the intri­cate way that the cocoa tree depends on many oth­er organ­isms (includ­ing mon­keys!) to pro­duce the cocoa beans that are ulti­mate­ly used to make choco­late…. [T]he sto­ry is very well told and the ‘side­bar’ com­ments by a pair of wise–cracking book­worms on every page keep the sto­ry live­ly and inter­est­ing, as well as rein­forc­ing the main points of the sto­ry. This book would be an excel­lent way to intro­duce young stu­dents to the con­cepts of inter­de­pen­dence among organ­isms in an ecosys­tem.” (NSTA Rec­om­mends)

“Start­ing with the fin­ished prod­ucts (cake! can­dy bars! hot fudge sun­daes!) and work­ing back­ward, Stew­art and Young explain where choco­late comes from. The expos­i­to­ry text begins with cocoa beans, which are dried and processed by humans, then the sto­ry moves back to cocoa pods, which come from cocoa flow­ers pol­li­nat­ed by midges, going all the way back to mon­keys drop­ping cocoa seeds on the rain­for­est floor and thus allow­ing new trees to grow. In this way, read­ers deduce the inter­de­pen­dence of life in the rain­for­est rather than rely­ing on didac­tic telling from the authors. Full-bleed ink and water­col­or illus­tra­tions zoom in on each step along the way, lend­ing visu­al sup­port to help iden­ti­fy poten­tial­ly unfa­mil­iar plants and ani­mals. In a cor­ner of each spread, two lit­tle worms pro­vide a run­ning com­men­tary, with knee-slap­pers and puns galore. A con­clud­ing note describes the fragili­ty of the envi­ron­ment, and an author’s note from Stew­art out­lines her writ­ing process. A “What You Can Do to Help” page lists gen­er­al sug­ges­tions for con­ser­va­tion.” (The Horn Book)

“Stew­art hooks read­ers with a title that prompts inquiry, and then con­nects read­ers with their pri­or knowl­edge and inter­est: chocolate’s role in desserts and tasty treats. Next, she moves into the process by which cocoa beans are processed, and then fur­ther back to where and how they grow, and the inter­re­la­tion­ships with­in the rain­for­est that make it hap­pen …. No Mon­keys, No Choco­late makes for a great read aloud, and pro­vides a mar­velous intro­duc­tion to cocoa, life cycles, the rain for­est, and the con­cept of inter­de­pen­dence in nature.” (Stylin’ Librar­i­an)

“I love choco­late. So, of course, a title like No Mon­keys, No Choco­late caught my atten­tion. Stew­art has effec­tive­ly com­bined fac­tu­al infor­ma­tion about cocoa beans with a touch of humor to make an enjoy­able read for chil­dren.” (KidL­it­Fren­zy)

“No Mon­keys, No Choco­late can be used for units on plants and plant struc­tures, ecol­o­gy (food webs, ecosys­tems) and even writ­ing. It will be a must for choco­late lovers, too. Be pre­pared to dis­cov­er many new things about some­thing we all take for grant­ed.” (Read the full review.) (Wrapped in Foil)

“No Mon­keys, No Choco­late by Melis­sa Stew­art and Allen Young with illus­tra­tions by Nicole Wong is a work of non­fic­tion ris­ing above oth­er titles for its authen­tic­i­ty in text and pic­tures. Even after sev­er­al read­ings I found myself active­ly engaged each time, look­ing for added items in the visu­als and mar­veling at the knowl­edge I was glean­ing from the writ­ing. I high­ly rec­om­mend this book to be includ­ed in library and class­room col­lec­tions.” (Read the full review.) (Librar­i­an’s Quest)

“No Mon­keys, No Choco­late is an inter­est­ing and thor­ough account of how cocoa trees pro­duce the beans that bring us the won­der­ful food. The sequence of the book is a clever way to present the infor­ma­tion. I would add this book to a unit on plants and it could also be used to teach the skill of sequenc­ing. Good stuff!” (NCTeach­er­Stuff)

“In this fas­ci­nat­ing book read­ers will learn about all cocoa trees and they will come to real­ize that these trees depend on an intri­cate lit­tle ecosys­tem that is inhab­it­ed by insects, rep­tiles, mon­keys and oth­er crea­tures. … The authors pro­vide read­ers with fur­ther infor­ma­tion about cocoa trees and rain­forests, and they tell read­ers what they can do to help pro­tect rain forests. An author’s note also explains how the authors came to write this book.” (Read the full review.) (Through the Look­ing Glass)

“This is a fas­ci­nat­ing look at the com­plex­i­ties of some­thing that many of us take for grant­ed. … entic­ing both in its premise and its exe­cu­tion. The art has a won­der­ful light­ness to it that fits the sub­ject par­tic­u­lar­ly well. The clever lit­tle book­worms add a whim­si­cal note to the entire book with their bal­looned speech bub­bles, ball­cap, flower and skirt. A win­ner of a non­fic­tion pic­ture book, this is one sweet addi­tion to any library.” (Read the full review.) (Wak­ing Brain Cells)

Behind the Book

“Dur­ing an after­noon walk in 2003, I lit­er­al­ly stopped to smell the ros­es and was star­tled by what I saw—aphids suck­ing sap, lady­bugs devour­ing the aphids, ants bat­tling the lady­bugs. The thriv­ing, active micro­hab­i­tat inspired me to write a man­u­script called Wild Rose Café.

“But after many rejec­tions, I real­ized that I need to focus on an impos­si­ble-to-resist plant. I found that plant—the cocoa tree—during a 2005 trip to Cos­ta Rica.

“When I returned home, I scoured the sci­en­tif­ic lit­er­a­ture for the facts I needed—what pol­li­nates cocoa, what dis­pers­es its seeds, what attacks its foliage. But I came up emp­ty. No one had doc­u­ment­ed this information.

“At last I tracked down Allen Young, the world’s lead­ing expert on cocoa-tree pol­li­na­tion and growth. He had all the infor­ma­tion I need­ed and agreed to be my co-author. That’s when the work real­ly began.

“I wrote and revised, wrote and revised, try­ing many dif­fer­ent sto­ry struc­tures. I kept ask­ing myself, ‘What’s the most engag­ing way to con­vey this infor­ma­tion?’ By 2008 I knew the book would fea­ture lay­ered text with a “House That Jack Built” feel, but some­thing was still miss­ing. Some of the com­plex ideas need­ed rein­forc­ing. How could I do that with­out being didactic?

“The solu­tion came from my nieces—sort of. They were dis­cussing Hal­loween cos­tume ideas and asked for sug­ges­tions. I said that one year their dad (my broth­er) won a prize for dress­ing up like the Swedish Chef from The Mup­pet Show.

“Did they want to be Ker­mit and Miss Pig­gy? No. How about Statler and Wal­dorf, the two old guys in the bal­cony? As they gig­gled, some­thing clicked in my mind. That’s what my book needed—characters to com­ment on the text and add humor. But not old guys. It need­ed book­worms! With the final piece in place, No Mon­keys, No Choco­late was born.”

No Monkeys No Chocolate

by Melis­sa Stew­art
and Allen Young

illus by Nicole Wong

Charles­bridge, 2013

for ages 5–8

ISBN 978–1‑58089–287‑2

Pur­chase this book at your local inde­pen­dent book­seller or Amazon.com.

Timeline from Inspiration to Publication

Book Extensions

READERS THEATER
TEACHER’S GUIDE
READ ALOUD GUIDE
NONFICTION TEXT
STRUCTURE BOOKMAPS
SECRET NOTE ACTIVITY
WHICH ONE IS DIFFERENT?
WORD SEARCH