The Little Monkey King's Journey & Chinese Lantern Festival

 Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me copies of these book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Did you know the Chinese New Year is still continuing? It ends with the Lantern Festival which is fifteen days after the first day and this year that is Monday, February 22nd. Hazel and I read about it in Celebrating Chinese Festivals by Sanmu Tang. (We reviewed this fabulous book earlier this month.)

The second chapter in the book is titled The Chinese Lantern Festival. It is the story of how the Jade Emperor's daughter saved the people from her father's wrath by lighting red lanterns and lighting firecrackers to make her father think his order to the God of Fire to set the storm of fire to destroy earth happened. During the Chinese Lantern Festival people eat sweet dumplings and there is a recipe in this chapter for them. We however have not tried them yet. 

Shijiazhuang City during Chinese Lantern Festival By User:Fanghong 
(Self-published work by Fanghong) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

 We have made Chinese lanterns previously when we explored China with the book All About China by  Allison "Aixin" Branscombe.

 Since it is the year of the monkey, we thought we would share a fun tale of the monkey king. The book is The Little Monkey King's Journey: Retold in English and Chinese by Li Jian. 

I have to admit this is my favorite of the monkey tales we have read thus far. This sweet story is about an orphan monkey who is adopted by the Monkey King. One day the Little Monkey slips and falls and the Monkey King tries to catch him. The Little Monkey lands safely, but the Monkey King is hurt and lays unconscious. The monkey doctor tells the Little Monkey that the only one who can save the Monkey King is the Immortal One but no one has ever been to the Immortal One's home. The Little Monkey takes on the challenge. Along the way he is helped by many creatures and makes it to the Immortal One who changes the Little Monkey's name to Little Wukong. This story is such a sweet story about an adopted son and his father. It really shows the love between them. The pictures are also beautiful and the quality of the book is amazing as always from Tuttle Publishing.

Source

So if you are looking for a nice story to celebrate the Year of the Monkey, I highly recommend this one. We loved it!!

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For even more information on Chinese New Year and the Year of the Monkey check out this great blog hop sponsored by Multicultural Kid Blogs! Be sure to link up your posts as well!!