Chico Bon Bon is never without his trusty—and heavily loaded—tool belt. “He builds a dock for the ducks and a clock for the clucks . . . He’ll need all his drill bits to fix up this ramp, plus a chisel, a frizzle, and a giant C-clamp.” When Chico is kidnappd by an organ grinder in search of a new monkey (“His old monkey, Bobo, had run away earlier that week with the help of several circus tigers”), he draws on creative thinking and many specialized tools (including measuring tape, pencil, mini file, hole razzer, and bendy extender) to implement a twelve-step escape plan. Chico Bon Bon is admirably enterprising, taking every challenge seriously. But his story is endearingly absurd, and the many fascinating items in his tool belt, from the reliably realistic to the delightfully contrived, are a wonder to behold. (Ages 4–7)

Clever monkey Chico Bon Bon builds lots of things with his many tools, and when he is captured by an organ grinder, he uses them to help him escape and get back home.