When Kai grows tired of her bookish mum not being adventurous enough for a Brownstone, she decides to seek out the mischievous and rebellious Monkey King - who she's always been told to stay away from. Will he bring her the adventure she craves, or will he cause her more trouble than he's worth?
Read the latest story from the mythical Brownstone's family vault where we venture to China and learn about the story of the Monkey King, meet magical gods, taste powerful peaches and see that maybe our heroes aren't always what they're cracked up to be.
Winner of the 2018 Waterstones Children's Book Prize, longlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal, and most recently nominated for an Eisner for Arthur and the Golden Rope, Joe Todd-Stanton is a master at storytelling and illustration, and this time he takes his history loving adventurer deep into Chinese mythology.
It was cool to learn some Chinese mythology for a change, but the story was pretty pointless. That being said, top notch illustration work once again from my boy Joe Todd-Stanton. You better believe these books earned him an Instagram follow from yours truly.
Also I loved that the Monkey King was essentially just Aang from Avatar with a little Goku sprinkled in.
Following on from the extremely successful Arthur and the Golden Rope and Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx, Joe Todd Stanton’s Brownstone family this time cross oceans and time into Chinese mythology. Embracing elements of traditional tales and Chinese folklore, he presents us with a young, headstrong girl, Kai and her mother whose job it is to protect the local villages from dangerous monsters. Unlike her bookish, reflective mother, Kai would prefer to tackle problems first and consider her actions later. When this leads her to unleashing the chaotic Monkey King from his cage, the consequences are greater than she could have imagined.
The story of the Monkey King (Sun Wukong) is an ancient one and much beloved in Chinese mythology. He is known to have hatched from an egg, maintained an endless search for immortality and angered both the gods and the Jade Emperor with his violence and impetuousness: echoed in parts by Kai herself. Although some of Monkey’s story is played out in this graphic novel, I was left wanting to know more about where Todd Stanton sourced his own research and how close to Wu Cheng'en, Journey to the West he remained. Interestingly, Damon Albarn and Chen Shi-Zheng created a soundtrack and stage adaptation of Journey to the West in 2007. Well worth chasing up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR7EE...
KAI AND THE MONKEY KING is an engaging and thrilling installment in the Brownstone's Mythical Collection series. In this book, we travel to the Brownstone family vault, which is unique because of the family who is sworn to protect and collect mythological creatures and artifacts. The narrator takes us to the story of the tenacious Kai and her mother, Wen.
A village requests their aid due to a mythical creature who appears once a year and wreaks havoc. Wen takes Kai to the library where she is sure they will find something to help the village. Kai, however, becomes impatient and begins to explore on her own. She finds a scroll about the Monkey King, and decides to request his aid in defeating the creature plaguing the village. However, things do not go as she planned.
What I loved: This book immediately draws the reader in and successfully delivers an engrossing story full of action/adventure and with some small lessons about listening to your elders/parents, learning who to trust, the value of books, and having more patience. The illustrations are gorgeous in Todd-Stanton's typical style, with loads of details and expressive characters. The story leaps off the pages. Even readers who are too young to enjoy the story can adore the lovely and detailed images that grace every page.
The text itself flows beautifully. This is the perfect length for the kindergarten and early elementary crowd to enjoy listening to (may be too difficult to read to themselves), but the storyline is fantastic and easy to follow. There's also a bit of a cliffhanger at the end (small one) that will leave readers clamoring for more.
Final verdict: Imaginative, engrossing, and beautifully illustrated, KAI AND THE MONKEY KING is a fantastic picture book that will appeal to kindergartners and early elementary school readers. Highly recommend picking this up for any children who love adventure, mythology, and a brave, young heroine. The added messages of patience and other valuable lessons are a bonus.
Questa volta le avventure dei Brownstone ci porteranno in Oriente, in terre mistiche colme di creature e divinità. La protagonista della vicenda sarà la giovane Kai che, al contrario dei suoi consanguinei, è un vero peperino e testarda come un mulo. Decisa a trovare la sua personale avventura, lascerà la madre Wen alla ricerca del Re delle Scimmie, in modo da liberarlo dalla Mano di Buddha e provare così il suo valore. Ebbene, le cose non andranno come previsto, dato che il Re è ancora più capriccioso di lei e ghiotto delle pesche dell’Imperatore di Giada. Kai capirà presto di essersi cacciata in un bel guaio, rimpiangendo così di non essere al fianco della madre. La storia vuole insegnarci che anche le attività più noiose sono utili alla nostra crescita e che fare di testa propria non è sempre un bene, soprattutto quando non si considerano le conseguenze. Ovviamente le illustrazioni sono on-point e le atmosfere ci sono tutte. Come sempre una conferma.
Young Kai likes to travel with her mom, but gets impatient with her mother Wen's observing, documenting, and containing of mythical phenomena for the Brownstone family's collection. Traveling through Ancient China, Wen's reputation for controlling creatures and situations grows and a village asks her to help them deal with a "terrible beast" that attacks the village once a year and destroys everything in its path. Wen heads to the village's surprisingly well-stocked library and proceeds to read everything she can about the beast. This is too much for Kai, who sees an opportunity for true adventure and not more research when she finds a cobweb covered scroll called "The Tale of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King." Kai sets out on her own to find the Monkey King and bring him back to the village to defeat the terrible beast, thinking that will show her mom that she is old enough to decide what to do. Things don't quite go according to plan, though, as the newly released Monkey King takes Kai on a wild ride to the Jade Emperor's garden where peaches grew that grant immortal life. How is Kai supposed to defeat the beast when the Monkey King won't listen to her?
This picture book that works like a graphic novel is highly recommended for ages 8 and up.
It tells the story of a brave young girl named Kai who meets and goes on adventures with a legendary Chinese hero named Sun Wukong. This is the third installment in Joe Todd Stanton's Brownstone Ichizoku no Boken series.
Kai and his mother receive a request to kill a monster. Faced with the challenge of killing a monster, Kai seeks out a powerful ally named Sun Wukong, the king of monkeys.
The appeal of this book is the unique relationship between Kai and Sun Wukong, in which a legendary hero and a young girl join forces to confront problems. The power and wisdom of Sun Wukong, as well as Kai's courage and ingenuity, combine beautifully to make the story enjoyable.
For example, when Kai negotiates with a peach to win Sun Wukong over to his side, or when the two fight a monster, the fierce fighting style of Sun Wukong and Kai's quick-witted strategy mesh perfectly, making it a thrilling read.
The book's graphic novel format also enhances the story's appeal. While the text and pictures work together to convey the story effectively, the expressive depictions of Sun Wukong and the dynamic scenes of his battle with the monster are particularly impressive.
In general, Kai and Songoo is a fun and imaginative adventure. It skillfully weaves together elements of all ages to create a captivating story that will appeal to children. It is recommended for children who are interested in myths and legends, as well as those who love adventure stories.
This third book of the adventurous archeology Brownstone family ventures to Asia where Kai is training with her mother to maintain the magical world, and solve its problems. One day when Kai's mother spends, what is a boring afternoon to Kai, doing research in the library, Kai sets off on her own and releases the Monkey King from his eternal binds. While she has an exciting time with the Monkey King, they end up falling out because neither is patient, and both have their own priorities. Kai returns to try to help her mother with the devouring monster she was researching to find her about to be eaten! Kai learns a valuable lesson about patience, doing your reading, and faithfulness to see a task through.
Kai is proud to assist her mom help villages with monster problems. But the latest job has them spending WAY too much time researching in the library. Kai wants action! She finds a scroll on the Monkey King and decides maybe he could help them with their latest monster. So while her mom researches, Kai goes out to find the Monkey King.
I like the little message about taking time to do research that's worked in here. The Monkey King is a trickster and Kai learns that the hard way. It is a great intro to Chinese mythology for lower grade readers (it looks like a picture book but it is a graphic novel that appeals to lower grade on up).
The graphic novel kai and the Monkey King by joe Todd-Stanton is a wonderful retelling of the Chinese Monkey King mythology, much like other books such as American Born Chinese. In this version, Kai is a young Chinese girl who follows her mother from town to town, observing nature and researching the world around them. One day, Kai’s mother, Wen, receives a message from a village that is threatened by a demon. Kai and her mother go to the village to try to help. Without giving too much detail, Kai is distracting her mother and gets sent to another part of the library. Kai badly wants to help, so she decides to go out and recruit the Monkey King to help her mother defeat the demon.
Spoilers ahead!
Kai manages to find the Monkey King but ultimately does not succeed in getting him to help. This graphic novel is part of a series called Brownstone’s Mythical Collection which makes me excited to see what other tales emerge in the future. As for this book, the colors the artist uses are bright without being too overwhelming. This choice makes sense when you consider that this book is written from the little girl’s perspective. Another thing that makes this book stand apart from other graphic novels is that the lettering is vaguely Asian-looking instead of the usual comic book font favored by other artists. This book is probably geared toward people aged 10-12, but it has enough of an appeal that older students might like it. Also, it might be a fun read for a parent to share with their child at bedtime. Overall, I give this book four out of five stars.
'Kai and the Monkey King' - part of the 'Brownstone's Mythical Collection' picture book series for children. I have read 'Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx', and now this. And let me tell you: It is a wonderful, wonderous, mystical, adventurous, fantastic, fantabulous, and heartfelt journey.
This adventure book/lesson and teaching guide is about Chinese mythology, Buddhism and Taoism; specifically the legend of the Monkey King, or Sun Wukong, from 'Journey to the West'. But mostly, it is a story about a mother and daughter. It is about learning things like patience, focus, research and knowledge from your elders, and learning things like listening to the next generation.
The female-focus-and-generational aspect of 'Kai and the Monkey King' is laudable and beautiful. The ending to the story is especially, enchantingly, endearingly, glisteningly tearful.
There are, of course, globetrotting and mythological beings, and also a library, scrolls, dragons, a nimbus cloud, fireworks, and peaches.
And it doesn't sugarcoat how much of a giant, greedy, power-hungry, self-centred, egotistical, prideful, thoughtless, narcissistic idiot the Monkey King is, and how Kai, the restless, reckless, rebellious young girl protagonist, and her mum Wen, a sagely adventurer, reader and documenter, are the real heroes in this tale.
Beauteous, marvellous, dynamic, and even tense, with gorgeous illustrations. I highly recommend 'Kai and the Monkey King' to any child, and any child-at-heart. To anyone, everywhere.
Now I must travel forth, on a quest, onto one more, surprise 'Brownstone's Mythical Collection' adventure.
Final Score: 4/5
P.S. It's funny how, in my review of 'Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx', I described the main character there as like Hilda, when it seems that each book in the 'Brownstone's Mythical Collection' series contains bit cameos of tiny green elf-like creatures that resemble the elves in the 'Hilda' series. 'Kai and the Monkey King' could be described as like 'Hilda' set in ancient China, too.
I've had kind of mixed feelings about the books in this series (really, all of this author's books that I have read) but the art is just so gorgeous I find it impossible to resist whenever I'm reminded of them. This book has all of this issues I had with previous ones, but I just found I didn't care as much; it is a cute, fun little story that riffs off of a popular bit of folklore. Conversely, though I enjoyed it overall and love the art, I felt like there were fewer little details that really drew my attention, though the art was enjoyable overall.
Honestly, the story gets more like a two stars because it felt like it took a paragraph of content and stretched it out to 50 pages. Other than to help Kai realize her mistake, I don't understand the point the Monkey King served in this story. He could've been left out completely, and Kai could've still come to the same conclusion. I was excited for some great big mythological fight, but just like Kai, I was bored. The illustrations are gorgeous though, which is why I gave the book an extra star.
This is the third book in Joe Todd-Stanton's book series Brownstone's Mythical Collection, which is situated in the liminal zone between picture books and comics.
As with the previous two volumes, Arthur and the Golden Rope (about the first ever Brownstone, a young boy named Arthur) and Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx (in which we get to meet Arthur as a grownup, and more importantly, his daughter Marcy, who takes the centre stage), Kai and the Monkey King opens with a short preamble by professor Brownstone in the family vault, where he first presents a variety of options as to which item and ancestor to present next, settling on a the story of a very humble peach pit, and young Kai and her mother Wen. As per the established model, the narrative focuses on Kai and her encountering mythological beings and doing daring deeds in order to somehow manage to win the day.
The basic concept of Todd-Stanton's series is a winning one for me. It is a fun way of revisiting various mythologies, while telling exciting modern stories for children. And the art is highly suitable to these stories.
4.5 stars Kai's adventure was fun to read, and I liked the mother daughter relationship in this story. Kai (in the illustrations) could have appeared more excited about receiving the villagers request, but other than that Kai had a strong and consistent arc.
Kai and Wen (Kai's mother) are part of the Brownstone family and are asked to help a village where a monster destroys everything! Using its Library, Wen researches ways to help, but Kai grows bored and looks for another way to save the people: by rescuing the Monkey King and asking for his aid. But will he do that? This book is a sweet way to introduce a bit of Chinese mythology! The illustrations are adorable, truly lovely! Great story!
Stupendamente illustrato come i precedenti capitoli, ma la storia l'ho trovata frammentaria e non costruita bene. L'inserimento della storia del re scimmia non ha molto significato ai fini della storia della protagonista Kai. Avrebbero potuto creare una storia originale per far evolvere il personaggio e non inserire la solita storia di Son Goku (chiamato qui con un altro nome), che è trita e ritrita. Però a parte questo l'ho adorato e spero davvero ne escano molti altri capitoli.
Another winner ... it is so tempting to wish these books - in the series-were longer but perfectly capture the imagination of 7/8 year olds with lots of opportunities for the children to create the stories within the stories ... plus they do challenge the reader too... highly recommended for children and classteachers
Actual rating 4.5 Stars. I’m not sure why but I enjoyed this one slightly less than the others in the series, possibly simply because it was the only one where the mythology was unknown to me. Nonetheless as always with this series the illustrations are gorgeous and the story fun and approachable for lower key stage 2 pupils.
I think ever since I read the first book in the series, nothing could really surpass that. This story felt really short to me and I genuinely thought that the Monkey King would aid Kai in her quest! It was a little disappointing, but I still really love the illustrations.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Beautiful illustrations and I love learning lore from other cultures, but I don't like the unfinished side of the story with the monkey king not really being dealt with. Maybe that just means more stories?
(3.75) Ça décolle toujours pas de mon côté mais ça reste tout de même une chouette lecture. J'apprécie beaucoup le fait que le tout soit narré à la manière d'un conte mais on sent que l'histoire est vite expédiée.
The illustrations get 5 stars, but the story is so weak that I had to give this 3. A great book to check out from the library - it's gorgeous - and there's some neat intros to Chinese mythology here. The writing just isn't very good, sadly.
With its stunning illustrations, I've always been intrigued about this series. I'm glad I finally picked it. Of course, I had to read all the books at once. Fans of Hilda and The Tea Dragon Society will love getting drawn into this world of a family of explorers who have mythological adventures.
Each book in this series is worse than the one before it. The framing is so convoluted and unnecessary. Kai was a brat and never faced consequences. The mother was a cardboard cutout. The Monkey King is a waste of time and a subplot that goes nowhere.