• Age: 0 to 8
• Grade: p to 3
• Reading age: 3 to 8

When baby Ribbon arrives, visitors to Japan's Awaji Island Monkey Center wonder how she is going to manage with no hands and with small, twisted feet. How will she hold on to her mother? How will she walk? How will she climb in the trees? How will she interact with the other monkeys? And how will she someday look after her own baby? But everyone is in for a surprise. This monkey is determined to do things her own way…Ribbon's way.

This story is not just about disabilities and the inspiring ways individuals meet those challenges. It is also, fundamentally, a story about being different and about rising above the limitations of others' expectations.

As with her first book, The Littlest Monkey, primatologist Sarah Turner's heartwarming story is abundantly illustrated with her superb photographs. The back of the book also features facts about Japanese macaques (snow monkeys) and about Ribbon and the disabilities present in this unique primate population. A delightful addition is a "find the critter" collage of animals and insects from Ribbon's forest world.

Sarah E. Turner's profile page

• Commended, CCBC Best Books