Monkey Puzzle - Julia Donaldson

A little monkey is lost. No wonder she wants to cry. How will she find her mommy? But look, a butterfly is ready to help her. How hard can it be to find someone in the forest? If you know how big they are, what color they are, how many legs they have, and other such things, it's simple. Or is it?

The little monkey keeps crying: "I've lost my mommy!" "Don't cry, little monkey," says the butterfly, "I'll help you look for her. We'll find her right away. Let's see, how big is she?" "Who?" "Your mommy..." "She's bigger than me!" "Bigger? I've seen her! What are you waiting for? Come quickly after me! Come on, come on, come on!"

Translation: Florin Bican

Julia Donaldson (b. 1948) is a writer, composer, and performer from the UK, well-known and appreciated for songs, plays, and TV scripts for children, as well as for the numerous books she has written for the past two decades. The Gruffalo was first published in 1999, in collaboration with Axel Scheffler, an equally well-known illustrator, and immediately became a bestseller.

In the same year, she received the Nestle Smarties Book Prize, and in 2000 it was named the best-selling children's book in the UK. Translations followed one after another, with Gruffalo being published in 31 languages on all continents. A TV adaptation, in the form of a 30-minute animated film, was made in 2009.

Florin Bican (b. 1956) is a poet and translator. From 2006 to 2012, he successfully coordinated the translation program of the Romanian Cultural Institute under the leadership of Horia-Roman Patapievici.