HOTEL JUNGLE
by Donna Jo Napoli & Shelagh Johnston & illustrated by Kenneth J. Spengler
A vacationing family ends up in the middle of an improbable adventure in a hotel run entirely by baboons. Receiving a postcard from their friends about their wonderful vacation, Susannah and Jimmy convince their parents to travel there as well. Unbeknownst to them, the staff and all of the guests of the posh hotel go on an unexpected luxury cruise, leaving the jungle inhabitants to run the show. The unsuspecting family is soon playing, grooming, eating, and sleeping like their jungle friends. Wildly colored illustrations of baboons in bell-hop uniforms and humans with baboon-inspired hairdos liven up this tale. Unfortunately, whimsy quickly dissolves into plain silliness as the implausibly naïve family spends their vacation following the lead of the local baboon population. Painfully absurd. (Picture book. 3-7)