Monsieur Eek
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''Monsieur Eek'' is a short novel by American playwright David Ives, intended for ages 9–12. It was first published September 1, 2001 by
HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...
. Set in 1609, it is about a chimpanzee who gets arrested for being a French spy.''Monsieur Eek''
at
WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
The book is based on a real law in
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
times that allowed animals to be convicted of crimes.


Plot summary

When a chimpanzee arrives in the tiny coastal city MacOongafoondsen during the
Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
he is taken for a Frenchman. Arousing insular prejudice, he is put on trial on suspicion of being a French spy and the thief responsible for a string of local burglaries. He is defended by 13-year-old Emmaline Perth with the help of Flurp, the town fool. Eek ends up being found guilty. However, he is rescued and not hanged. MacOongsafooden's population starts to rapidly rise.


See also

*
Animal trial In legal history, an animal trial is a trial of a non-human animal. These trials were conducted in both secular and ecclesiastic courts. Records of such trials show that they took place in Europe from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. ...


References

2001 American novels 2001 children's books American children's novels Children's historical novels Children's novels about animals Fictional chimpanzees Fiction set in 1609 HarperCollins books Children's books set in the 17th century {{2000s-child-hist-novel-stub