In fact it's almost unfair to describe this as another Monkey chronicle, because it's really the tale of a mighty girl and her adventurous mother who end up with a most difficult quest - to defeat a gigantic monster that intimidates a local village every year.
Kai is restless and feels she's ready for battle, but Mum is far more sensible - and instead of heading straight to the armoury, Mum goes to the library.
Kai doesn't realise that sometimes you need to do a bit more than run into battle, a bit of research is required but she soon becomes restless - and when her mum banishes her to the other side of the library so she can concentrate, Kai discovers a mysterious tome that speaks of the captured Monkey King.
This undefeatable warrior is currently imprisoned, so Kai decides to free him and enlist his help in defeating the gigantic fiery beast.
Monkey is arrogant and full of himself, so eventually Kai realises that perhaps this rather aloof simian might not be that much help after all. Will Kai somehow have to defeat the monster alone, or will someone else leap in and save the day at the last minute?
We've not read previous adventures in Joe's amazing "Brownstone Mythical Collection" but we very much want to, now we've devoured this amazing book. Once again it's clear that Flying Eye / NoBrow not only has a knack for finding the most amazing artistic talent on the planet, but they produce some of the most gorgeous picture books - that stretch the medium to the very limit, truly lovingly produced and crafted.
Sum this book up in a sentence: Again, as with Luke Pearson's "Hilda" series, if you're looking for picture books to bat someone around the head with when they assume that PBs are "for babies", this will do nicely.
"Kai and the Monkey King" by Joe Todd-Stanton is out on 1st October 2019, published by Flying Eye Books / NoBrow Press (kindly supplied for review).