This is the letter we sent out to a couple of publishers...to no avail. But I won't give up! Someone will publish more "Monkey King" Stories! Dear Editors, Our request that you consider publishing a particular book may be unusual. We are a Sunday school class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Studio City, California, and the book we are recommending to you is by Ji Li Jiang, who has written the acclaimed Red Scarf Girl. The unpublished book we are asking you to consider is the second in her series that retells the classic 17th century Chinese tale of Journey to the West. This epic adventure is a cultural touchstone, widely known, retold, and loved throughout Asia. The hero is Monkey King, an impulsive, self absorbed creature endowed with supernatural powers, and at the start of the story he is oblivious to the consequences of his actions. I've read Ji Li Jiang's first book in the series to a few of my religious exploration classes of 8 to 11 year olds, and the thing is, kids go wild for Monkey. He's got all the superpowers a kid could possibly want. He can fly. He's indestructible, super fast, and super strong. He's learned spells and enchantments from a Daoist master. He lives for danger and excitement. Not content to rule over the monkeys of the Mountain of Fruit and Flowers, he travels to heaven, the kingdom of the Jade Emperor, and enrages all the Daoist Immortals as he destroys precious treasure in his search to be immortal himself. He upsets the Confucian order of heaven as he seeks status and acclaim. But he is also a kind and capable leader of the monkey tribe. He can be so unpredictable! It is this very restless, self absorbed nature that in the Buddhist tradition must be overcome in order to find enlightenment. And indeed at the end of the epic, after gaining a motley band of traveling companions, journeying through treacherous territory and battling frightful demons, and after retrieving the sacred Buddhist texts from India, Monkey does achieve enlightenment. But the thing is, my Sunday school kids don't know that part, because only the first book of the series has been published! These kids only know the selfish rotten side of Monkey! They haven't yet found out what the repercussions of his bad behavior have been! I've emailed Ji Li Jiang, every once in a while to see if the next book has a publisher, but alas, it does not. I really need this book for my class. We make a shadow puppet theater and puppets to reenact all the exciting parts ourselves. It takes a few weeks to tell the story, and by the end, the kids are howling to know how it all ends. Yes there are other translations of Journey to the West in English, but none for 3rd graders. And Ji Li Jiang's words are delicious to read aloud. I absolutely love using Monkey to explore the three intersecting Great Religions of China. Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism are said to be "the cap, robe, and sandals" of a Chinese person. That is to say, there is no need to choose which religion to be, (a rather liberating thought to consider.) It is our hope that you will contact Ji Li Jiang at info@jilijiang.com and find an agreeable way to publish the next Monkey book. Thank you for your consideration, Jill Herbertson and the Big Room kids at UUCSC