Monkey Fist

Samurai Kids #4

by Sandy Fussell, Rhian Nest James (Illustrator)

The diversely talented Samurai Kids set off to rescue their friend — and find secrets in their midst -as the action-packed martial-arts series continues.

The Samurai Kids are ready to travel back from China to the Cockroach Ryu, nestled in Japan's Tateyama Mountains. But then the unthinkable happens: Kyoko, one of the Cockroaches, is kidnapped. Sensei knows it is the mark of his old enemy Lu Zeng, an evil minister of the Forbidden City who is obsessed with eternal life.

The Cockroaches must make a perilous journey to the Forbidden City, during which they encounter the mysterious, forest-dwelling Lin people. But Niya, the boy with one leg, has his trust tested when he learns that his best friend, Yoshi, is keeping secrets. Even worse, it seems that Sensei is not revealing all he knows either.

Will all these secrets keep the Cockroaches from achieving their most important mission yet- rescuing Kyoko before Lu Zeng performs horrible experiments on her?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Childrens, Adventure, Middle Grade

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Sandy Fussell lives south of Sydney with her husband and two sons. She studied mathematics at university, is intensely interested in history and now works in IT. From the moment she could read, Sandy loved books and always wanted to be a writer. In school, she wrote what she refers to as “booklets” and “terrible plays that the teacher made the class perform”. After school, Sandy forgot about writing for a long time and started a family. She came back to writing after one of her children stopped reading and she suggested that they write a book together.

Reviews

[Katharine (Ventureadlaxre)]

Katharine is a judge for the Sara Douglass 'Book Series' Award. This entry is the personal opinion of Katharine herself, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator or the Aurealis Awards management team.

I won't be recording my thoughts (if I choose to) here until after the AA are over.

[Margbar11 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been a very powerful read-aloud series for us! Monkey Fist is the last installment currently published in the US. :-( We'll be getting the next 4 from Australia if need be!

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really gets you sitting on the edge of your chair