My larger format sketchbooks haven't exerted the same pull for me recently as they did in the past and for a while now I have wondered how a new format, a new size would feel to work with, what sorts of images, line, designs a new format might call for.
Bought one today, so we shall see.
Why a squirrel monkey? Oddly enough there was a large monkey cage and a monkey in it at my school when I was in elementary school. A year or so later it was decided that keeping a monkey was not in the school mandate, so the monkey and cage were sent elsewhere. I remember spending a lot of time in and around the monkey cage. Something about the structure and restraint of that environment brings to mind the edge of the page.