monkeys and apes

It's fun to teach people of all ages about animals. Most of us find them fascinating. So is there a difference between monkeys and apes? In a nutshell, yes. They both belong to the order Primates, which means among other things that they have five fingers, fingernails, and opposable thumbs. However, most monkeys have tails, while apes do not. The photo here was taken by Martin OC at Creative Commons. It's a chimpanzee, which is an ape.
Chimpanzees I Love by Jane Goodall is a wonderful book for kids. It's written for ages 9-12, but a child of any age would enjoy flipping through and looking at the pictures. Monkeys (Our Wild World) by Deborah Dennard is a great educational book about monkeys.
Speaking of monkeys, my extremely talented friend Lynn painted this mural for me as a baby gift. Sadly, it was in our old house so we had to leave it behind. But, the new owner wanted it to stay on the wall, so I take comfort knowing it's still there. And I can't wait until Lynn can paint a new mural for little B...I just have to decide on a theme.