Book Review: The Monkey King's Daughter by T. A. DeBonis

The Monkey King's Daughter
by T. A. DeBonis
The Monkey King's Daughter

DVTVFilm
ISBN-10: 0-967-80944-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-967-80944-1
Publication Date: May, 2009
List Price: $9.95

Review: Exciting… Loving… Adventurous… these are some words that help explain The Monkey King's Daughter, which is the first book in the series. This girl named Meilin is a normal teenage girl, all until her "ancient past catches up with her." In this fiction story Meilin and her Uncle Zhu Bajie enters a world or the past where all of the Chinese Myths come alive. Not only that, but Meilin has to save her mother because she got kidnapped. This story is heart- warming and almost inspires you.

In the beginning, Meilin is a normal, 13 year old girl, although Meilin has a mysterious past. Nobody will tell her anything about herself, like the fact she doesn't know who or where her father is or who her grandparents are. When the day comes that she turns 14, her life changes forever. She finally finds out about her ancient past, her father, and who she is, The Monkey King's Daughter. When Meilin's mom, Lijuan, gets kidnapped by a horrible king's servants, Meilin and Uncle Zhu Bajie have to go save her. Not only does Meilin get to be united with her father, she finally has the family she had been waiting for. This story is touching and adventurous combined into one.

The Monkey King's Daughter is very entertaining. The first chapter of the book mostly tries to explain Meilin's life and provide a background so readers are not confused later in the story. This is very important to have in a book because you don't want your reader asking too many questions and have the text too confusing to read. Also, I believe there are several of things readers can relate to in and the main character, Meilin, because she is a normal teenager. This is a great thing to have because the reader can understand how Meilin feels and it definitely helps the reader know what is going on and understand what he/she is reading. One other thing is I love how the main character changes throughout the text. In the beginning of the story, Meilin is a shy girl who is an outcast and gets picked on by this mean girl named Tiffany. Although, by the end of the book, Meilin is popular, significantly confident, and Tiffany doesn't bother her anymore. I believe the book is excellent.

The Monkey King's Daughter is fantastic and I give this book five stars.

Review written by Abigail (6th grade student).

We would like to thank T. A. DeBonis for providing a copy of The Monkey King's Daughter for this review.

Have you read The Monkey King's Daughter? How would you rate it?