The Rise of the Monkey King: A Story in Simplified Chinese and Pinyin 600 Word Vocabulary Level (Journey to the West in Simplified Chinese)

I almost didn't buy this book because I don't want the Chinese text, pinyin, and English translation interspersed. I find it too distracting. But I found out the print version had a format I prefer. I'm afraid I have to disagree with the reviewers who wish to the pinyin above each line of Chinese text. For goodness sake, put a little effort into learning to read CHARACTERS! It is doable if one puts their mind to it. I don't mind having the pinyin off to the side for reference if I don't know how to pronounce a particular word. And having the English in the back is "inconvenient" enough to force me to translate it, which is a better learning approach. I'm happy that there's something out there that is beyond the level two Mandarin Companion graded readers. I plan to keep purchasing these books one by one.

Was recommended this by the Mandarin Companion people, and it's really nice! The story is fun and easy to follow, the illustrations are gorgeous, and I think the e-version is more conducive to learning because of the lack of easily accessible pinyin. I will say that like the other reader, I found it a bit short, too -- the story ends at around 16% of the length of the book. Which is fine, honestly. It still made for a couple hours of fun reading -- and there are five more books to go! I was a little disappointed when it ended so abruptly. But this is also one of the few chinese graded readers I've been able to find at this level, and it's quality. Definitely worth checking out.

Enjoying the book and vocabulary. With HSK 3 you will be learning new words and characters you already know, but combined to mean different words

When I grew up I loved reading the Monkey King translations. Now that I am learning Chinese, I am glad to be able to read an abridged version in Chinese. I checked with my Chinese tutor, who has a master's degree in Chinese linguistics and she said that Ms. Wang did a good job translating. I would recommend this book to new Chinese readers.

Don't get the kindle version.The footnote links don't work as expected. The font is inconsistent when displaying Chinese characters. The formatting is really poor.I regret not getting the physical book.

It's hard to find graded readers, and this one was very pleasant to read. I have only been learning for three months and this helped me both learn some new vocabulary and build up my confidence! Will definitely be getting the other books in the series, and I really recommend them for other beginners trying to find reading materials.

Looks like I'll be buying the print version of this book instead, probably from a local bookseller. The Kindle version does not have the pinyin on top of the Chinese characters which makes using it as a learning tool impossible!

I bought this book when I just begun to study Mandarin because dual language books in this format are hard to find! While the pinyin on top of the characters are useful, I find that it's distracting when I'm trying to read the characters by themselves so the layout for this is just perfect.I had some japanese-english story books that were this format, and I find it much better than the ones with the romaji right next to it. The plus side is the English translation is in the back so you can't cheat! Even though I've not yet grasp HSK 3 vocabs/grammar points, I try to read the characters as much as I can, then read the English translation in the back and then read the characters again. Thank you to the author and team for providing us an essential reading with a twist to it.Question/suggestion to the author: Do you think you'll be into writing short stories (preferably short folklore stories) up in preferably to HSK 4/5/6 in this format? I know there's many books out there, but not in this format. Thank you again! Will be buying the next book in the series after I finish with this one. Also is there a discount if we buy the whole series :D?

Premier tome d'une excellente série de livres pour apprendre le mandarin. L'histoire est intéressante et donne envie de lire tous les livre l'un à la suite de l'autre. Je recommande.