Monkeys & Apes [VHS]
This video does a good job of educating the viewer about the basic difference between monkeys and apes--the former has a tail, the latter doesn't--but goes on to use a lot of big words ("arboreal," "prehensile") that might be a little tooEncyclopedia Britannicafor younger viewers. Other videos in this series, such asEndangered AnimalsandScary Animalshave a quicker and more engaging pace. This one is long on dry facts and short on comic relief. The jokes often fall flat: "Monkeys don't talk the way we do, so how do they use the phone?" our addled animated narrator Henry the lizard asks. Still, for primate people, there's a lot of great pictures of monkeys swinging from the trees and apes cuddling their young, including fascinating footage of monkeys taking a steam bath in a hot spring surrounded by snow in Japan.--Valerie J. Nelson