Willy and Hugh

by Anthony Browne

Book Overview

Hans Christian Andersen Medal winner Anthony Browne brings his polished artwork to another humorous, heartwarming tale about the charming chimp and his unexpected success. It's not easy being a chimp in a world of oversized gorillas, and in WILLY AND HUGH, our scrawny hero is lonely for a pal. Hulking Hugh seems an unlikely candidate, but as Willy discovers, the oddest couples can make the best of friends.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679814469
• ISBN13: 9780679814467
• Release Date: July 1991
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Length: 26 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.9" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

A Heartwarming Story

This is one of the sweetest, simplest stories I've read to my son -- relevant to [...] age range -- explores real feelings that all of us experience, ranging from loneliness and being "left out of the crowd" to the happiness of finding a friend and feeling useful and liked. Such a nice, heartwarming tale.

"Isn't it Ironic, Don't You Think"

In this work the main character named Willy is a monkey. This book describes how Willy makes a new friend. In the beginning of the story, Willy is sad and lonely because he has no friends. As the story progresses he meets an ape named Hugh. They become good friends and spend a lot of time in various places together. The illustrations in this story is also very unique. All the characters are monkeys. Some illustrations even offer irony. In Willy and Hugh when they go and visit the zoo, instead of the cages housing animals, they hold humans who look rather scared. Browne not only adds irony to the illustration but also underhandedly suggests a double meaning behind this illustration. It makes a more mature reader question whether Browne is making an animal rights statement or just trying to make the picture funny. There are a lot of humorous and ironic illustrations in the story. Browne also plays around with the idea of irony in Hugh's masculinity. In Hugh's illustartions he is quite awkward looking. Hugh's shirt does not match and the vest that is over his shirt is three times too small. Hugh's pants are also not the normal length, not to mention that the knees in his pants are worn out. Dirt stains also are all down the front of his legs and on the back of his behind. The colors in these illustrations are solid, vivid, dark colors. These colors, although dark, do not add a dreary tone to the stories. The color's bold and vividness add to the story by keeping the reader's attention. The characters in these stories are male and the dark colors help to develop the character's masculinity. Seeing a monkey in a pretty pastel lavender jogging suit just does not have the same effect as a monkey in a dark green and red jogging suit. If the colors were lighter it would confuse younger readers about the gender of the characters The text in this works is written in a bold, medium type. This is done so that there is focus on the words, but more on the pictures. On the pages where there is print there are also pictures on the page and a larger picture on the opposite page. This story combines the text and its illustrations together. Browne seems very interesting and entertaining in this story. Whether the reader is young or old I believe they would find some entertainment in his books. Browne writes children's books that add a unique perspective to the work.

Friendship between two lovely apes.

We think it was a very sweet story about two totaly different apes, who met eachother in the park by accident. We love all the books of the ape Willy. He is very shy and so lovely. In the Netherlands he's called Sijmen.