Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls is a middle grade historical novel first published in 1976. Set in rural Oklahoma’s Ozark Mountains in the late 1800s, the story follows 14-year-old Jay Berry Lee as he tries to capture a group of monkeys that escaped from their circus train. The monkeys, and especially the chimpanzee who leads them, prove themselves wily adversaries for Jay Berry, who desperately wants the reward money that will accompany their safe return. The novel received the William Allen White Book Award and the California Young Reader Medal. This guide references the 1999 reprinted edition of the novel by Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers.

Readers should be aware that the text includes the use of the word “crippled” to describe a girl with a physical disability. The text also includes unexplained references to the novel’s geographical setting as “Cherokee Nation” and the use of the term “Indian” in reference to a Native man.

Plot Summary

Fourteen-year-old Jay Berry Lee, a white American boy living in northeastern Oklahoma’s Ozark Mountains in the late 1800s, enjoys growing up on a rural farm. He is proud of his hardworking parents, who grow corn and raise chickens. He enjoys the companionship of his grandfather, who runs a local general store. Jay Berry has a twin sister, Daisy, who was born with a twisted leg. Daisy can’t run and explore like Jay Berry, but she is brightly spirited, kind to animals (especially small woodland creatures, who have no fear of her), and eager to nurse anyone who is sick or unwell.

Jay Berry thinks he will surely be a hunter or explorer one day. He loves to explore the geographical area near his home called the river bottoms. The bottoms are near the banks of the Illinois River and comprise an area of roughly overgrown brush and thick trees. One day early in the summer, Jay Berry discovers a monkey while exploring the bottoms with his bluetick hound dog Rowdy. At first, he is scared and runs to tell Papa. Papa thinks the monkey must be a rich person’s pet that got away. When Jay Berry excitedly tells Grandpa what he saw, however, Grandpa tells him that a circus train was recently wrecked nearby. The handlers were not able to catch all the monkeys; about 30 ran away. A smart chimpanzee escaped with them. Grandpa thinks the escaped monkeys came to the bottoms for the plentiful food and water. Jay Berry immediately focuses on the reward for their safe capture, as $2 per small monkey and $100 for the chimpanzee would pay for the two things he wants most: his own pony and a .22 rifle.

Grandpa begins helping right away with Jay Berry’s plan to catch the monkeys. He loans Jay Berry six small steel traps with jaws wrapped in burlap (so as not to injure any small monkey paws). He suggests camouflaging the traps in the dirt and leaves, and Jay Berry plans to hang apples above each trap as bait. Early the next morning, Jay Berry is proud of his trap-setting work in the bottoms, but the chimpanzee springs the traps with a stick and easily takes all the apples for the smaller monkeys; then he steals the traps when Jay Berry goes for a drink of water. When Jay Berry returns to Grandpa, Grandpa offers him a butterfly net to try. As Jay Berry leaves, Grandma gives him bread to take home; she asks about Daisy’s leg, mentions that she thinks Daisy deals with more pain than she lets on, and reveals that she and Grandpa, like Mama and Papa, are trying to save up for the surgery that will correct the problem. Jay Berry is grateful for Grandma’s concern but is more concerned with trying the butterfly net. The net handily catches two small monkeys, but the chimpanzee calls an attack. While dozens of small monkeys nip and scratch at Jay Berry and Rowdy, the two netted monkeys go free.

After a few days during which Daisy nurses his wounds and accompanying fever, Jay Berry tries Grandpa’s new advice, based on correspondence with the circus owners: befriend the chimpanzee leader, whose name, according to his trainer, is Jimbo. Jay Berry is willing to try anything, so he takes more apples for Jimbo, intending to convince the chimp to be his friend. This time Jay Berry discovers that the monkeys found a hidden whiskey distillery in the bottoms. Jimbo insists on trading a cup of sour mash for the apple Jay Berry offers. Trying to boost the chances of friendship, Jay Berry accepts and drinks the sour mash. After several cups each, Jay Berry and Rowdy the hound dog are both drunk. Jay Berry falls asleep; when he wakes up, his britches are gone. He and Rowdy stumble home monkeyless. His hangover is miserable, but soon Jay Berry returns to Grandpa for a new idea. Grandpa decides it is time for expert advice and takes Jay Berry and Rowdy to Tahlequah, the nearest sizable town with a library. After some chores and sightseeing, they visit the library where Grandpa gets the idea to build a chicken wire trap and bait the monkeys with coconuts. On the way home, they stop in the bottoms for a drink of spring water, and the monkeys steal the coconuts Grandpa purchased in town. Jimbo leaves Jay Berry’s britches, now dirty, and steel traps.

Determined now more than ever to catch the monkeys, Grandpa and Jay Berry plan to move ahead with their wire trap plan. A powerful thunderstorm, however, arrives that night. Daisy, afraid, goes to Jay Berry in the night and says she saw the Old Man of the Mountains again, a spirit she claims is responsible for the caretaking of the surrounding hills and creatures. Jay Berry is relieved to hear that the Old Man smiled instead of frowned when pointing at their house, indicating a blessing instead of a reprimand and bad luck. The next morning, Daisy finds a fairy ring (a perfectly spaced circle of white toadstools) near her playhouse. Legend suggests that wishes made inside fairy rings come true, so each family member including Rowdy step inside and make a wish. They do not reveal their wishes to each other. As he waits for his turn in the circle, Jay Berry plans to wish to catch the monkeys but ends up wishing for the repair of Daisy’s leg instead.

Later that day, Jay Berry goes to the bottoms to check on the monkeys. After a long search he finds Jimbo and 28 small monkeys hiding under the embankment near the river. Jimbo led the monkeys there for safety during the bad storm. They are cold, wet, scared, and sickly. Jay Berry carries them five at a time into the sunshine. Jimbo decides to trust Jay Berry; he hugs him and climbs into his arms. Jay Berry leads Jimbo hand in hand back to the farm, and the small monkeys all follow. They contentedly stay in the corn crib where it is warm and dry until the circus owners collect them the next day.

Jay Berry takes his reward money and excitedly goes to choose a pony from two that Grandpa traded from a local Native man. After a long decision-making process between a stocky roan and a beautiful paint, Jay Berry chooses the paint despite a minor injury to her back leg. The injury will heal but will take time, and Jay Berry hates to wait to ride her; however, he always envisioned owning a paint and loves her right away. Grandpa asks several times if he is sure about this choice, as big decisions like this one often come with regret for having done the wrong thing. Jay Berry cannot figure out what Grandpa might be trying to say. He leads the pony home happily.

Arriving home, Jay Berry hears Daisy singing. He suddenly realizes his reward money must go toward the surgery for Daisy’s leg. He tearfully returns the pony. His parents, grandparents, and Daisy are grateful and relieved. Mama and Daisy leave for Oklahoma City and are gone for six weeks. The surgery goes well, and Jay Berry knows that he did the right thing, but he misses the pony terribly. When Mama and Daisy return, Papa and Jay Berry go to the train station in Tahlequah to greet them and bring them home. Jay Berry is amazed at the sight of Daisy walking unaided by her crutch. His spirits lift; he is now happy that his reward money led to Daisy’s new capabilities. They travel home; there, Jay Berry is shocked to see that Grandpa bought the paint mare that Jay Berry loved so much. He names the paint Dolly. When Daisy asks to run together, Jay Berry joyfully goes with her.