Maybe He Just Forgot to Shave! Gorillas in Our Midst by Richard Fairgray

You know how it is. You get gorillas on your mind and you start seeing them everywhere!

GORILLAS ARE HARD TO SPOT.

THEY'RE MASTERS OF DISGUISE.

That fuzzy-faced guy behind the newspaper on the subway? Can't be!

But just in case it's a good idea to keep a banana or two with you at all times.

Don't say you weren't forewarned!

GORILLAS OFTEN GET JOBS THAT LET THEM WEAR MASKS.

So, see, you've got to watch out for astronauts, scuba divers, surgeons, ninjas..., especially if they're kinda on the, um, burly side.

You may not spot them at the supermarket, but in the fresh produce section, if the sign on the banana bin says SOLD OUT, you-know-who has been there!

GORILLAS HAVE BEEN IN OUR MIDST FOR A LONG TIME.

SURELY YOU'VE HEARD OF GORILLIAM SHAKESPEARE?

OR APEBRAHAM LINCOLN?

But if you think you spy a gorilla, look again. It's probably just an orangutan.

THEY'RE TERRIBLE AT HIDING.

Richard Fairgray's gloriously tongue-in-cheek Gorillas in Our Midst (Sky Pony Press, 2015) offers kids the secret scoop on spotting undercover apes, while illustrator Terry Jones' artwork aids and abets the author's deadpan delivery and preserves the putative great ape's deniabilty with a nod and a wink to savvy readers. Only grown-ups of a certain age can be expected to get the pun in the title,* but although Jones' droll blackline illustrations tell the story well, older kids (those who have at least heard of William Shakespeare, for example) will especially get the wry humor in this one and ape-preciate its sly sophisticated wit.


*Dr. Dian Fossey's classic nature memoir, Gorillas in the Mist.