Monkey King

Monkey King

written and illustrated by Ed Young. 2001. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. (9780060279196). 

Author/Illustrator Website: http://edyoungart.com/

Media: collage with handmade and bought papers

Awards and Honors: none

Annotation: A simplified retelling of the story of the Monkey King, one of the most colorful and well-known characters in Chinese legend.

Personal Reaction/ Discussion of Artwork:

     Ed Young creates a quick paced adaptation of a classic Chinese legend in  Monkey King. Monkey is "courageous and clever, nimble and quick-witted", but he's also a bit of a trouble maker. He angers the Dragon King by stealing a gold pillar from his underwater kingdom and invokes the wrath of the Jade Emperor in return. When the Jade Emperor cannot punish Monkey, Buddha steps in to put Monkey in his place. 

     Young's illustrations are graphically minimalist; they're beautiful, but sometimes their lack of detail makes them hard to decipher. The color palette, a combination of neutral, earthy browns and beiges and deep jewel tones, is unusual but eye-catching. Sometimes Monkey appears as a tiny figure within a landscape, other times he fills the page, giving the illustrations a strong sense of movement. Young's compositions are dynamic and images spill off the edges of the papers. A double-spread gatefold illustrates the confrontation between Monkey and Buddha, and it's impressive- one page folds out horizontally and the other vertically to show Buddha's giant, obsidian hand stretched to the heavens. 

     While the story has its faults (the number of characters is large and their appearances are brief and without introduction, the prose is clipped and confusing at times) Young does a decent job of paring an epic saga down to a manageable and attractive picture book.