The Chinese Library Series is a collection of graded Chinese readers designed for kids and teenagers, consisting of six levels. There are stories about the life of modern teenagers, classical works, myths, legends, idiom stories and so on, which enable students to learn Chinese characters and words better, improve their Chinese competence and enhance their understanding of the Chinese culture while enjoying the joy of reading. 

The Old Man and the Monkey is a beginner’s level (300 words) Chinese reader which tells a story of an old man selling hats who fights a battle of wits with a group of monkeys using concise language and fantastic illustrations. A wordlist is provided for the story in each book, and small exercises and a passage for extended reading are provided after the story to help students to do self-evaluations and teachers to conduct classroom activities. The book can be used with an MPR talking pen, which will read out any word you touch. A free CD-ROM included narrates the story, the passage for extended reading and the wordlist in the book.

Carol Chen is currently a Chinese teacher at West Island School which is a part of the English Schools Foundation in Hong Kong. She received the degree of Master of Education in Chinese Language Education and has been teaching Chinese for many years in international schools in Hong Kong. She participated in the writing of several textbooks of Chinese as a foreign language, including a GCSE Chinese textbook sponsored by the Faculty of Education of Hong Kong University. Her publications include A+ Chinese and other textbooks.