Wild Violet!

Alex Latimer's Wild Violet is a funny picture book for 5 year olds about a little girl who's even wilder than the monkeys.

What happens

Violet was born wild. Everyone said she'd grow out of it by three. She didn't. She won't wash. She eats with her fingers, scribbles all over the walls and even growls at the family dog.

Her parents are so exhausted that they beg Gran to take her out for one afternoon, just so they can have a nap. Gran picks the zoo, because fresh air is calming.

It isn't. The animals only give Violet new ideas! And by the time they reach the Monkey House, Gran is so tired that she takes the wrong hand home. She takes a monkey.

Here's the best bit. Nobody notices. Not Gran in the car, and not Mum and Dad either, because the monkey behaves EXACTLY like Violet always does. He even gets a bath and a bedtime.

Little ones will love being in on the joke. How can nobody tell?

Meanwhile Violet is having a brilliant time with the monkeys. Then night comes. The hay is cold and damp, nobody tidies up, and there's nobody to read her a story or tuck her in. By morning she's missing home.

It's a gentle story about behaving yourself that never feels like a lecture. The fun is all in the swap, and in grown-ups who are far too tired to notice what's in front of them. The ending is kind, too, and it doesn't ask Violet to stop being herself.

For a very lively five-year-old, Violet is a heroine to cheer for. And for whoever is reading it aloud at the end of a long day, a mum and dad too worn out to spot a monkey in the bath might feel quite familiar (we won't tell).

What to read next

If they enjoy a zoo trip that goes wildly wrong, try Daisy and the Trouble with Zoos, where Daisy gets over-excited on her birthday outing and insists that none of it was her fault.