Words by Byron Thomas Olsen
Illustrations by David Hodges
Once there was a little monkey named Andrew. He just moved to a new tree. His new room had blue everywhere except in the middle of the floor, where there was a big yellow spot where he was sitting.
He liked his old room better. His old room was a block away, and a block is far for a monkey. His old room was green with a red spot in the middle of the room.

Andrew loved his parents. They were nature engineers. Nature engineers are people that make stuff out of nature. They made Andrew his very own bicycle.

Andrew missed his old house so much, that he climbed right out of his window and he started running as fast as he could. He was sure he knew the way to his old house.

It was getting dark and some sense got knocked into him. What if there are people in the house? If not, what would he do when he got there? Also, what if he didn’t actually know the way? Andrew didn’t know what to do, so he sat on a rock and cried.
Just then, his friend Ollie came along and asked Andrew what the matter was. “I’m lost and I don’t know my way home,” said Andrew. “Don’t worry, I’ll help you find your way home,” replied Ollie.
Andrew sat up and started walking with Ollie for awhile when they started sinking. Andrew looked down and saw quicksand! He quickly thought about what his parents would do. Then he saw some vines above him. He started pulling himself up and Ollie did the same.

Ollie knew the way to Andrew’s house, but it was far away. They started walking for awhile when a tiger came out nowhere! Andrew quickly decided to build a net to capture the tiger. “I’ll distract him while you build the net,” said Ollie. “Okay,” replied Andrew. Sure enough, they both did their part.
Once Andrew finished the net, he jumped on the tiger, and captured the tiger with the net. Ollie lost a few tail feathers. Andrew and Ollie walked and walked until they decided to get some rest. So they lay down and went to sleep.
The next morning they woke up and started walking again, and they came across a river. “How are we going to get past this one?” asked Ollie. “This will be easy,” said Andrew. “I’ll just make a bridge.”So sure enough, he built a bridge out of vines, and they crossed it without any problems.

Finally, they found Andrew’s house! However, just before they got there, a king Cobra jumped out of the forest. They ran back, knowing they couldn’t fight a King cobra unprepared.
“I’m a good flute player,” said Ollie, “maybe I can hypnotize it.” “Good idea!” replied Andrew. Ollie took out his flute, and they walked awhile to get to the snake. When they finally got there, Ollie started to play his flute, and the Cobra moved back in the forest.
They waited a while and then Andrew finally got home! He said goodbye to Ollie and then went into his house.
“Mom, Dad, you won’t believe what I did today!”said Andrew as he walked in the door.
“We’ve been so worried about you. Where have you been?” asked his mom.
“I got lost trying to find our old house, but Ollie and I got back home no problem, because I’m a nature engineer, just like you!”