Monkey King

By Ed Young

Book Overview

From a fantastic explosion is born the legendary Monkey King, the clever and courageous hero of one of the best-known stories from China. Ambitious Monkey travels to Square Inch Mountain, where he trains with Master Putt to perfect the art of turning cloud somersaults, riding the wind, changing shape, and disappearing in the blink of an eye.Then Monkey eagerly shows off his magic skills by tricking Dragon King and battling Jade Emperor. Monkey is so arrogant, he even gets into trouble with Buddha himself. Caldecott Award-winning author-illustrator Ed Young has created colorful and lively collages and specially designed two fold-out pages to animate the story of Monkey King and his acrobatic, high-spirited adventures. This unprecedented picture-book adaptation introduces just the beginning of the classic epic Journey to the West, about the mission to bring Buddhist scriptures to China. Monkey is only one of its many characters, but he is undeniably the most beloved of them all.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060279192
• ISBN13: 9780060279196
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 10.0" x 11.0"
• Age Range: 1 year and up
• Grade Range: Kindergarten and higher

Customer Reviews

Excellent Book

My son keeps checking this out from the library and I thought it would be nice to pick it up for him for Christmas or something. Yikes! I can see why the cost is so high, though. This is a wonderful book. The illustrations are so rich and beautiful. The story is fascinating. The little guy is 5 and it's his favorite book right now.

A magical children's rendition of China's famous epic, Journey to the West

This is a fantastic short version of the Monkey King story with incredible illustrations. I used it to help some of my beginning and intermediate level Chinese ESL students. It makes a good format for them to learn English since they are already familiar with the story. Even though this book is written for children adults can certainly appreciate its beauty.

Beautiful short version

A nice intro to Monkey King & a beautiful book. I could see reading it to a 1st or 2nd grade class as part of an intro to China. If you've talked about collages & how Eric Carle does his books, this would also be a fun book to see. There are also differences the Adventures of Monkey King told by Cheng-En Wu to spot. (My 6 y.o. & I make a game of that at home as we read Wu's version first.)

Read about the Monkey King!

Title: Monkey King Author: Ed YoungReading Level: 5-8 This is a great book. I would recommend this book for ages 5-8. This book is about a monkey that is clever and courageous, with an appetite for mischief and showing off. This book has many other characters. It is adventurous book with magic and fun. This is a good book. J

Colorful "Monkey" business

"Monkey King," by Ed Young, is a visually striking children's book whose story evokes Chinese folklore. The art is a lot of fun; the collages burst with color and energy. The only unnecessary element is an unwieldy gimmick involving pages that fold out of the book. Fortunately, this fold-out gimmick is only a very small part of the book.The many colorful characters in the book include Red Beard Bandit, Dragon King, Jade Emperor, and the monk Tang. The wildly multicolored title character is a trickster, magician, and likeable rogue. His character is nicely complemented by Guan Ying, the serene Goddess of Mercy. All in all, a good job by Ed Young.