Books by Jeff Pepper

This book contains the full text of the first three stories in the best-selling Journey to the West series for people learning to read Chinese. The three stories told here - The Rise of the Monkey King, Trouble in Heaven, and The Immortal Peaches - are unchanged from our original versions except for minor editing and reformatting.These three stories all focus on the adventures of Sun Wukong, the Handsome Monkey King, one of the most famous characters in Chinese literature and culture. His legendary bravery, his foolish mistakes, his sharp-tongued commentary and his yearning for immortality and spiritual knowledge have inspired hundreds of books, television shows, graphic novels, video games and films.The full story of Sun Wukong's adventures is told in the original Journey to the West, an epic 2,000 page novel written in the 16th Century by Wu Cheng'en. Journey to the West is probably the most famous and best-loved novel in China and is considered one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature.These stories are written, as much as possible, using the 600 word vocabulary of HSK3. They are presented in Traditional Chinese characters and pinyin, and include an English version and complete glossary. Free audiobooks are available on YouTube's Imagin8 Press channel, and on our website, www.imagin8press.com.

This book contains the full text of the 10th, 11th and 12th stories in our Journey to the West series for people learning to read Chinese. The three stories told here are unchanged from our original versions except for minor editing and reformatting.In The Magic Ginseng Tree, Tangseng and his disciples arrive at a secluded mountain monastery which turns out to be the home of a powerful master and an ancient and magical ginseng tree. As usual, the travelers'' search for a nice hot meal and a place to sleep quickly turns into a disaster. In The Monster''s Secret, the travelers encounter a monster living a quiet life with his wife and their two children. But all is not as it seems, and things get quite complex. And in The Five Treasures, the travelers encounter their most powerful adversaries yet, a pair of monster brothers who capture the travelers and plan to dissolve Sun Wukong and eat the others.The story is written, as much as possible, using the 1200-word vocabulary of HSK4. It is presented in Simplified Chinese characters and pinyin, and includes an English version and complete glossary.  A free audiobook is available on YouTube''s Imagin8 Press channel, and on our website, www.imagin8press.com.

Our band of travelers arrives at Level Top Mountain and encounters their most powerful adversaries yet: Great King Golden Horn and his younger brother Great King Silver Horn. These two monsters, assisted by their elderly mother and hundreds of well-armed demons, attempt to capture and liquefy Sun Wukong, and eat the Tang monk and his other disciples.  Led by Sun Wukong, the travelers desperately battle their foes through a combination of trickery, deception and magic, and barely survive the encounter.This is the 12th book in the best-selling The Journey to the West series of stories for students learning to read Chinese. It is based on the epic 16th century novel of the same name by Wu Chen''en. That novel was inspired by an actual journey by the Buddhist monk Tangseng, who traveled from Chang''an westward to India in 629 A.D. and returned seventeen years later with priceless knowledge and spiritual texts. Over the course of the book Tangseng and his companions face the 81 tribulations that Tangseng had to endure to attain Buddhahood.The story is written, as much as possible, using the 1200-word vocabulary of HSK4. It is presented in Simplified Chinese characters and pinyin, and includes an English version and glossary. A free audiobook is available on YouTube''s Imagin8 Press channel and also on www.imagin8press.com.