This Is My Fort

This Is MY Fort! (Monkey and Cake #2) Drew Daywalt. Illustrated by Olivier Tallec. 2019. [February] 56 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: Hello, Cake. Hello, Monkey. What are you doing? I am making a fort.

Premise/plot: Monkey and Cake are friends, best friends. In their second adventure, Cake is making a fort. Before Monkey even asks if he can play in the fort, Cake states:

I am making a fort to keep out Monkeys. No monkeys are allowed in my fort.

 Does Monkey get upset and throw a fit? Does he fight his way into Cake's fort? Does he call names? NO. No. No. Monkey gets clever.

The wall to your little fort is also the wall to my "rest of the world" fort.

 Will Cake realize that his way of playing fort is no fun at all? Will Cake want to join Monkey in his fort?

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this second adventure. (The first adventure is WHAT IS INSIDE THIS BOX?) The back and forth dialogue is fun. (Perhaps a tiny bit repetitive, but still fun.) I think most--if not all--can relate to this story. It is a story about forts, playing forts. But it is also a story about inclusion and exclusion. It's no fun being left out and excluded. It offers a different perspective on play. For example, the wall that keeps Monkey out of Cake's 'no monkey' fort, is also a wall keeping him [Cake] inside. It's a wall between him and the rest of the world.


© 2019 Becky Laney of Young Readers