EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

THIS STORYBROUGHT TO YOU BY:

Text copyright © 2001 Ji-li Jiang • Illustrations copyright © 2001 Hui Hui Su-Kennedy • Reprinted by permission of Breakfast Serials, Inc. • www.breakfastserials.com

“The Monkey King” Chapter 12: Monkey Goes to a BanquetSTORY SO FAR: Monkey,

head of the Celestial Peach Gar-den, has been eating the peaches. But seven fairies sent by Jade Em-peror discover the disappearance of the peaches.

Monkey quickly realized that if he did not act quickly, the fairies were going to report his thefts of the peaches to the Jade Emperor!

In a blink he transformed back to himself and jumped down from the tree. “Thieves! Thieves!” he yelled at the seven fairies. “How dare you steal my peaches!”

The fairies fell trembling to their knees. “Master, we are not thieves!” they cried. “We were sent by the Jade Emperor to fetch peaches for the Peach Banquet!”

“Ah,” said Monkey, becoming instantly friendly. “So you serve the Jade Emperor?”

“Yes, master.”“Well, well. Get up and tell me

about this Peach Banquet. What is it?”

“It’s the biggest banquet ever given by the Jade Emperor. It is held once every thousand years at the Jade Pond,” one of the fair-ies replied timidly.

“Who will be there?”“Great Buddha, for one. God-

dess Guan-yin for another. And many others, such as the Em-perors of the Four Quarters, the Five Spirits of the Pole Star . . . . all the important high beings will be there.”

“All the important beings?” Monkey snapped. “Then why haven’t I been invited? I am the Magnificent Monkey King, head of the Celestial Peach Garden, am I not? How dare the Jade Em-peror not invite me?”

“I don’t know,” said a fairy, be-ginning to tremble before Mon-key’s anger.

“Very well,” said Monkey, “since he didn’t invite me, I shall invite myself.” He straightened his court hat and robes and

Adopted From the Classic Chinese Tale by Ji-li Jiang | Illustrated by Hui Hui Su-Kennedy

groomed his fur. But then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the seven fairies edging away.

Monkey lifted a hand, recited a magic formula, and shouted, “Stay!”

The fairies froze in mid-mo-tion.

Monkey laughed. “That will keep you for a while,” he told them. “And now for the ban-quet!” He somersaulted out of the Peach Garden and headed for the Jade Pond.

As he was hurrying along he saw an old goddess in elegant court clothing riding a cloud in front of him.

Monkey ran after her. “Re-spectable goddess, where are you going?” he called.

“To the Jade Pond,” the god-dess replied. “I, Lotus-Feet Im-mortal, have been invited to the Jade Emperor’s Peach Banquet,” she said proudly.

Monkey feigned surprise. “Ah, haven’t you heard? Jade Emper-or has asked all the guests to go the Cloud Palace instead of the Jade Pond this time. It’s a little further away, but it’s more spa-cious.”

“Really?” said the goddess. “Then I had better hurry or I will be late.” With that she turned her cloud about and flew off in the opposite direction.

As soon as she had gone, Mon-key transformed himself into an identical twin of Lotus-Feet Im-mortal. “Clever monkey!” Mon-key congratulated himself. “Now you are invited!” Then he head-ed for Jade Pond.

When Monkey King got there, however, no guests had arrived. Instead, servants were running back and forth carrying dishes and refreshments —going over the last details for the great ban-quet.

Monkey was wondering what to do when he smelled some-thing truly marvelous. It was a fragrance sweeter than honey,

light as fine air, delicate as the scent of the rare green rose. It was coming from the kitchen.

He hurried over to it and there, bubbling over a small flame, he saw an immense silver pot. It bore a label: Laughing Liquid.

Monkey listened. Sure enough, the bubbling liquid made a sound like laughter. He closed his eyes and breathed in the aroma. It so tickled his nose, he giggled.

Oh, he thought, for just one tiny taste!

Monkey checked the kitchen door. No one was watching. He reached into the pot, put the tip of his little finger into the liquid, and licked it. Delicious!

But then Monkey tittered. Wanting another taste, he put

his paw in the liquid and scooped out a mouthful. A delectable current flowed down his tongue, his throat, his stomach—until it seemed to reach everywhere in-side his body.

But then Monkey chuckled. Wanting still more, he put

his whole head into the pot and drank and drank and drank. Within moments nothing of the liquid was left.

Feeling a little giddy, Monkey sat on the floor. The next mo-ment he began to laugh. He tried to stop, but he couldn’t. It start-ed with little laughs, chortles, giggles, snickers, and chuckles. Very quickly the laughs became bigger. Soon Monkey was guf-fawing, belly laughing, slapping his legs, howling—whatever kind of laugh there was, Monkey was bursting with them all and could not stop.

In the midst of his laughter a great gong sounded. Then the booming voice of the Jade Em-peror could be heard: “Let the Peach Banquet begin! Bring in the Laughing Liquid. We will each have a drop. It shall give us all a touch of glee!”

© 2019 by Vicki Whiting, Editor Jeff Schinkel, Graphics Vol. 35, No. 52

As we approach the Season of Giving, Kid Scoop celebrates young people who make a di�erence all year long.

Use the code to �nd out the name of Mackenzie’s organization:

Draw a line to match each pencil

to its identical twin. Can you �nd the one

unique pencil?

= B = E = G

= H = I = K

= L = N = O

= R = S = T

W

There are several words that mean

something like the word to give.

Find the letters that spell each of these words on a page of

the newspaper. Connect the letters to spell each word.

GIVECHARITY

PHILANTHROPYGRANT

CONTRIBUTEDONATEAWARD

GIFTStandards Link: Research: Use the newspaper to locate

information.

hen Mackenzie Bearup was 14 years old, she had a disease that forced her to stay in bed. To keep her mind off her pain, she read a lot. And the books started to pile up.

Mackenzie learned about a home for abused children that wanted to start a library. She gathered up her books and asked her friends for book donations.

She gave the home enough books to fill their library. She reached out to other homeless shelters to see if they could use donated books. Today, she and her organization have collected over 55,000 books!

J

T

emalle Williams was 11 years old when he saw a classmate named Carter being made fun of by other students because he was chewing on his pencil a lot. At first, Jemalle thought he would just ignore the kids doing the bullying. But after a while, he thought, “I should do something.”

What did he do? He started chewing on his own pencil.

hen the kids started making fun of him instead of Carter. Jemalle said, “It didn’t really phase me because I knew I had done a good thing.”

Carter appreciated Jemalle’s help and the two of them became friends.

Jemalle went on to write a book called Different yet Alike based on his experience. He illustrated the book himself and made copies to sell. He raised $160 which he donated to his school to help with bullying education.

You can read Jemalle’s book at the website differentyetalike.com

“He was like the smallest kid in the class which made him an easy target,” said Jemalle. “I thought long and hard on what to do to get them to stop without drawing attention to my own weirdness. It finally came to me, I had a lightbulb moment.”

When Chase Hartman was 10 and Vance Tomasi was 11, they started the organization called read.repeat. to get books in the hands of those who needed them.

“We learned that kids who own books do better in school,” remembered Vance.

Since starting their organization, the boys have collected 110,000 books and distributed them to 200 locations in all 50 states.

Find the path from the book

to the shipping

box.

Receive or Give?Some say it is better to give than

to receive. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Standards Link: Letter sequencing. Recongized identical words. Skim and scan reading. Recall spelling patterns.

Find the words in the puzzle. How many of them can you

find on this page?DIFFERENCEDONATIONSSHELTERSFRIENDSLIBRARYPENCILSEASONGIVINGBOOKSALIKECLASSREADKIDSHELPCHEW

S

R

E

T

L

E

H

S

B

D

F

C

L

A

S

S

O

S

D

O

N

A

T

I

O

N

S

G

L

E

D

D

K

I

D

S

N

I

R

A

S

N

L

E

S

I

B

E

E

A

L

I

K

E

V

R

F

W

E

H

C

K

A

I

A

F

R

I

E

N

D

S

G

R

I

R

E

C

E

I

O

I

Y

D

H

E

L

P

D

N

Standards Link: Research: Use the newspaper to locate information.

Letters to the EditorLook through your newspaper for problems in your community. Can you and your friends come up with ideas to solve one of these problems? Work together to write a letter to the editor with your ideas.

Standards Link: Spelling: Spell grade-level appropriate words correctly.

BOOK LOVERS’ PUZZLE: Can you unscramble these book titles?

IDYRAFO A

YWPMIIDK

DALISNFO HETEBLU

PINDOLHS

NIENIWHET

HOOP

Two new Kid Scoop books are here!

They make a great holiday gift. Order from your local bookstore,

Target.com, BarnesandNoble.com and Amazon.com today!

ANSWERS:1. Jack in the box2. Ants in the pants3. Brain drain4. Burning the midnight oil5. A rose between two thorns6. Up hill and down hill

Standards Link: Problem-Solving: Use a variety of strategies to solve problems.

Each word-picture puzzle has a meaning. Work with a

parent to figure them out.

THIS CONTENT BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE JACK BUNCHER FOUNDATION.