Everything is better with monkeys. Fact. Scientists have done double-blind studies and everything. Sequels are almost never better than the first book. Fact. Sure you can wave "Godfather 2" or "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo" at me, but I remain unconvinced.
(Fact 1) - (fact 2) = Monkey with a Tool Belt and the Noisy Problem! The first Monkey with a Tool Belt book attempts to answer the age-old question: if everything is better with monkeys, are monkeys better with toolbelts? (Seriously - age-old question - Pythagoras spent some time on the question when he wasn't messing around with triangles and being a cult leader. Those Greeks really did think of everything.) I think probably the answer is yes, monkeys are improved by toolbelts, but stories about monkeys with toolbelts are not improved by the addition of carny folk. Oh, new fact!
Clowns are scary.* Fact.
So with new experimental data, we can see that a sequel can be better if it has monkeys and toolbelts, but has not been marred by a plot that involves getting abducted by circus folk. (I'm not making this up.) Instead, Chico Bon Bon - our be-tool-belted simian hero - investigates a weird noise in his totally rockin' tree-house - so rockin', it possibly out-rocks the tree-house in Go Dog Go!. (And I don't need to flip out about the nightmare that is the tree-house in the Berenstain Bears. *shudder* We're talking rockin' tree-parties.)
But let us not squabble. Let us instead enjoy all tree parties that do not involve clowns, but do involve an elephant in a laundry chute & finishing up cool projects with snacks.
*I went looking for an image to link here of a scary clown, as a gag, and after typing "scary clown" into the googles, I can definitively say that that's not funny, and I'm sorry I thought of it.