King Kong’s Cousin, allegorical fun with silly, contrasting apes

Kids can smell a bad allegory like expired meat that’s been left in the trashcan for three days. King Kong’s Cousin is an illustrated book that’s ripe with allegory but doesn’t have the stench of week-old room-temperature meat. The book will indirectly resonate with those kids that have older siblings, but in reality, any pre-k through middle elementary school reader will grin at the silliness that lies within the book’s big monkey spine.

The cover of King Kong’s Cousin alludes to the comparative fun. Young readers will see King Kong scaling a skyscraper, while a much smaller ape is measuring itself against the wall. The much smaller ape, Junior is Kong’s cousin and often finds himself in Kong’s shadow. While King Kong is as big as an apartment building, Junior is resigned to simply live in an apartment with his mom and Bernice, their cat.

The two of them see Kong’s acts of strength and marvel at his abilities. Junior is trying to become bigger and stronger, by doing his exercises and eating enough bamboo. However, it’s frustrating for Junior to do his chores and practice seemingly mundane things like the piano while his cousin is out in the street wrestling a dinosaur. Bernice and Junior are supportive of King Kong and go to his appearances, like when he’s in a movie or featured in the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

It’s when the two go to the latter that Junior gets his time to shine. He suddenly hears a caterwaul coming from the tree and sees Bernice, paralyzed by fear and stuck in its upper branches. Junior quickly climbs the tree, gets all the way up to where Bernice is, puts her on his back, and shimmies down. After all, it was almost dinner time and the two of them were quite hungry. At dinner, mom praises Junior for being brave, even though he didn’t feel like it too much. It’s quite possible though that he’s a little bigger.

King Kong’s Cousin is a simple illustrated book that doesn’t use a lot of words to tell its story. The illustrations are all in black and white, with just a hint of red here and there to add a little bit of variety to the background. It’s the style of the art that really sells the book for young readers. It shows New York City in the 1920s as it’s represented in the original King Kong movie. The first illustration in the book even has a drawing of the classic shot of him on top of a building, swatting at airplanes.  The odds of elementary school readers having seen that movie are almost zero, but they do know the concept of King Kong.

He’s a timeless intellectual property who can occupy a story in any timeline. However, for young audiences, its go-to timeline is going to be Roaring 20’s. The two colors help drive home the enjoyment. As Kong saunters through the city’s streets, his scale is captured at just the right angle. In a full-page illustration, Junior and Bernice watch him from their apartment as he saves a subway. When it becomes Junior’s time to shine the drawings are more focused on him and his actions.

He’s the hero when he climbs the tree, even if he doesn’t see it as a heroic act. Kids will hopefully take the message of King Kong’s Cousin to heart and realize that everyone has a gift. For our house, it’s always “But my brother can” or “You’d never tell my brother that”, statements that the younger will often say when he’s trying to cover his tracks for something that he’s done, hadn’t done or needs to do. We tell him, much the way that Junior’s mother does in the book, that everyone has a different gift and that they’re loved just the way that they are. It’s a simple message that kids who have siblings or who view their skill set as sub-par need to hear.  King Kong’s Cousin, as our lead indicated, in no way smells like a lesson book. Instead, it’s a fun romp that leads kids to realize things and just might develop into a conversation after reading it.

King Kong’s Cousin is by Mark Teague and is available on Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

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