Original pictures for Storynory by Sophie Green.

       This is a story about a very unusual boy, and an even more unusual monkey. The boy was out of the ordinary as boys go, because he didn’t like chocolate. No, not at all. Not even one little bit. And I must stay, I’ve never met a boy like that. Not in my entire life. And the monkey was unusual because he absolutely adored chocolate – this particular monkey went absolutely bananas for it – and as you may guess – very few monkeys are mad about chocolate, if only because, they’ve never even tasted it.

The boy was called Jim, and the monkey was called Theodore, or Theo for short.

One day, Jim’s Aunty Judith took him to the zoo. Jim’s mother had told her that Jim didn’t like chocolate, but she didn’t believe that. 

“Poor little thing,” she said to herself. “His mum won’t buy him chocolate because she’s too mean. But I’ll buy him an nice lovely bar and give it to him while we are out.”

And that’s what she did. Only it was true. Jim really didn’t like chocolate.

“Oh thanks Auntie Judith” he said when she gave it to him. “That’s really kind of you. I’ll just save it for later, if you don’t mind.”

But he did like seeing all the animals in the Zoo. The prowling bears weren’t at all cuddly – but they were super cool all the same.  The giraffes had lovely soft noses, but the snakes in the snake house made Jim’s blood run cold – but he liked being scared really, – just a bit.        

And the monkeys – well everyone loves monkeys. They looked silly but intelligent all at the same time. And in particular, one was nicer than all the others. He came up to the bars of the cage and pressed his face through them. That little monkey was Theo. Jim thought he looked hungry, and then he remembered the bar of chocolate in his coat pocket, and decided to give it to him.

Auntie Judith was starting to move on to the next cage full of chimpanzees. Jim unwrapped the chocolate bar, and threw it to Theo. The chocolate bounced against the cage, but Theo reached out with his little hand through the bars and grabbed it. Instead of stuffing it down his mouth, he started to lick it. His big brown eyes started to go all dreamy, he was in monkey heaven.

Just then Auntie Judith called to Jim and he had to run after her. “Thanks for the chocolate Auntie Judith”, he said. “It was delicious.”

And Aunty Judith thought: “Such a mean mummy not to give Jimmy chocolate. He loved it, obviously.”

But it was Theo who was in love with chocolate. It went straight to his stomach, and then straight to his brain, and soon he was swinging around the climbing frame of his cage like, well like a monkey -  a mad, mad monkey.

“Ooo oooo Ah Ah!” Theo shouted at the top of his voice, he didn't stop for what seemed like hours. He was quite, quite crazy. Even the other monkeys had never seem him quite so crazy, which of course he was --, he was crazy, for more of that yummy, yummy chocolate.

But when effect of the chocolate wore off, Theo felt really, really down.  He had never felt so down - Have you ever felt this way when you’ve eaten too much chocolate?  First it makes you really happy and then, later, you feel well sort of sad.  And this is what was happening to Theo. And all the next day he sat in his little cave, inside his cage.

“Poor poor me." he cried, "now I’ve tasted chocolate, I want more and I can never be happy again, poor, poor Theo. " and he began to cry , whilst he sucked his thumb. (something he always did when he was upset.)

The Keeper noticed that he had gone off his food, he wouldn't even eat his bananas. One of the keepers said he may be in love. Another thought he was sick after all the jumping around the day before. The vet was called for but he couldn't catch him. "There can't be much wrong with him, if there was he wouldn't be able to swing away from me all the time."

 But there was nothing wrong with Theo, he was quiet because he was working out a plan to get more - Chocolate.   And the very next day his chance came. His keeper came in carrying a big armful of bananas, and he couldn't close the door properly behind him, Theo saw it and he was through the gap within seconds.

“Oi You Stop!” Shouted the Keeper.

But Theo didn’t, he was up and running towards the turn styles, He was just halfway through his leap when he saw it, chocolate - a bar of chocolate in a little boy's hand. He grabbed the chocolate and began to run down the street . The little boy was too startled to cry.

“Hey Mum, Mum , did you see that monkey. He stole my chocolate” he cried.

But his mum hadn’t seen Theo, so she said, “Don’t tell fibs Malcom. I’m not buying you another one. it's you whose the greedy little monkey”.

Poor Malcom he didn't what to say. Of course by this time Theo had gobbled down the stolen chocolate and once more he was on a high. So he took off straight for the shopping centre – not because he knew that chocolate was there – but he sensed it, and then the fun really started.    

First a little girl ran to a policeman and told him a monkey had stolen her bar of chocolate. The policeman obviously didn't believe her, for he patted her on the head an d walked away smiling. But then when the owner of a corner shop called and said that a monkey had rushed into his shop and rushed out again with an arm full of nutty chocolate-bars. He began to change his mind.

Then when a gift shop rang the station to say that somebody had stolen several pounds of hand made Belgium chocolates. And the manager of the Super Market  rang to say that a monkey was swinging over the shelves, knocking tins, jars and bottle of milk all over the aisle.

“I don’t suppose you believe me,” the manager said sadly. “But can you hear the noise. Those are my customers. Some of them are screaming and others are laughing”.

“Oh yes, I do believe you” said the telephonist at the police station. “we do believe he might be heading straight for your chocolate shelves. Wwe will be with you as soon as we can”

The police then realised they had a huge monkey search on. Which of course they did.

    The Police set up a special Incident Center, which is what they do when something really, really bad happens. And Chief Inspector Clews put twenty officers on the case, and told every patrol car and policeman on the beat to look out for a monkey on the loose.

The local television news were taking pictures of this naughty monkey, children were gathered round the Super Market doors hoping to be on the television by giving interviews of the chocolate he had stolen from them. And Theo where was he, hwhy after taking as many boxes as he could he had made it out the back door of the Super-Market and away. Where too, no one knew, but he hadn't gone far!

The television reporter said, “This disaster couldn't have happened at a worse time. Easter is on its way, and shop keepers say it is too dangerous to put out Easter Eggs. Our Children may have to go without chocolate this Easter.”

They Mayor was so furious that he called up Chief Inspector Clews told him that he was so bad at his job that he couldn’t even catch an escaped monkey. And Chief Inspector Clews didn’t like that. So he decided to set up a special trap.

First he got a special cage with an automatic door, and filled it with chocolate bars This he left it in the middle of the park, because he thought if Theo was hiding there, he would make for it.

But Theo wasn’t hiding in the park, he was climbing into the back of a supermarket lorry that was unloading some chocolate boxes, and this time he got away with a whole cardboard box of chocolate bars. Theo was still free and searching for more chocolate.

The police then bought out their tranquilizer guns which fired special darts to make Theo go to sleep. But it’s hard to hit a fast-swinging chocolate-charged monkey and they couldn’t shoot Theo no matter how hard they tried.

They were all at a loose end, what were they going to do next. This monkey was making everyone change there plans. The poor Mayor was devastated. Every year it was the tradition to have an easter egg hunt in the Mayor’s back garden – which was almost as big as a park.

All the children from the town were invited to come, and look for eggs, hidden under the bushes and in the lower branches of the trees. But now, with Theo still being on the loose, the Mayor was going to cancel the Egg Hunt because he couldn’t trust Theo not to spoil the party even though his police force would be there to stop the monkey spoiling it all.

This of course made the children very sad indeed. But then so was the Easter Bunny.  He had to do something, and quick. He decided he would go and have a word with Theo.

He knew quiet well where Theo was hiding. There was a big hollow tree on ther far side of the park,  and the smell of the chocolate had given him away.  It didn't take him long to hop over to the park and the tree. It was his time to sort out the marauding.

“Hey you, Theo! monkey! What do you think you are doing spoiling everything for the little children?”

Theo looked out from his hole just above the first branch, when he saw it was only a rabbit he jumped down to see what he wanted.

Easter Bunny repeated his question,   Theo just swung upside down by his tail and said. “What do you mean spoiling everything for the children, there’s enough chocolate in this world for everyone.”

But the Easter Bunny was very angry, and when he was very angry, he looked surprisingly fierce, even though he was fluffy and white.

“There might be lots of chocolate in the world  but I have to go round hiding Easter Eggs for the children next weekend, how can I, if at any moment you might come along and steal them? Stealing is wrong Theo, and even a monkey should know that.”

And that night Theo couldn’t sleep because his conscience kept telling him that the Rabbit was right. Stealing is wrong. So the next day he went back to the Zoo and turned himself in. Everyone was very surprised to see him back but he wasn't happy. Every day he sat in his cage looking very sad, the thought that he could never eat chocolate again was so depressing. In fact, he decided that he would die without a piece of chocolate.

The week went by, Theo became sadder and sadder, and by the time Easter Sunday arrived and he knew the Easter Bunny was going to be taking loads of chocolate eggs to the Mayors to hide for the children to find, well, his heart it was almost broken in two.

But do you what hapened next? Theo was shocked to hear the sound of the Easter Bunny calling his name.

"Hey there, Theo. come on out and have a look what the children have saved for you."

Theo crawled out of his cavern, his tail dragging along behind him. His eyes suddenly open wide, his tail went straight up and began to shake , and them Theo shouted "OO OO AH AH, beating his little fist on his chest. There on the floor of his cage was chocolate, yes lots of lovely chocolate eggs.

"Now Theo, " Bunny said sternly, Don't eat it all at once. Chocolate is only good for you if it is eaten a piece at a time. If you eat two much, it will make you go crazy again and fat, and then you wont be able to swing in your branches and go o o o ah ah ah. So keep it special for I am sure the children wont forget the way you almost spoilt their Easter.

And it is true, for the children would pop by and see Theo all the time. However they never gave him a whole chocolate bar again. No just a small piece to keep him happy till the next time. And of course every Easter, the Easter Bunny used to take Theo a special Easter Chocolate all for himself.

What do you think children?   Do you like it? A chocolate Theo and look how big he is.

ooo ah ah ah ooo ah ah ah, (Ha ha ha says Diddily)

As you may have noticed I changed the words around a little to fit in with the pictures. Maybe you would like to draw a picture of Theo and send it to Dr. Do-Diddilyand the dee-dot's.

And that’s the story of the Monkey Who Loved Chocolate.

The Answer to the quiz is easy;
everyone of the questions were TRUE except Number 7
Not even the beautiful Marilyn Monroe,
 was crazy enough to wash her hair in chocolate.