Maksing and mona / Marla Yotoko Chorengel, edited by Melissa Ylanan Moran, illustrated by Albert E. Gamos.

In Philippine folktales, the monkey is often a favorite character. Clever and wily, it usually manages to outwit its rivals -- the turtle, the crab, the crocodile, the jellyfish, man. Well, almost! In Paris, France, in 1885, our national hero, Jose Rizal, retold in Spanish and illustrated in pen and ink, the amusing fight over a banana tree between "The Monkey and the Tortoise." This folktale was published in the July 1889 issue of Trubner's Oriental Record in London, England -- this became the basis for the proclamation of the third Tuesday of July as Philippine National Children's Book Day. Philippine monkeys (macara philippinensis) abound in Mindanao and Negros. They usually travel in bands of 20 and leap from tree to tree. Monkeys like to feed on ripening corn so that farmers consider them pests. Monkeys are sometimes kept as pets. --Amazon.com