Samurai Kids : Monkey Fist

The fourth installment in a unique series about a special group of kids training in the ways of the samurai.

Kyoko is kidnapped in the middle of the night – but by whom? Who has the skill and ability to sneak up on Sensei and slip him a sleeping drug? Sensei immediately knows it is the mark of an old enemy, Lu Zeng, who is an evil and self-important minister of the Forbidden City, obsessed with eternal life. After helping their friends Mei and Du Feng and the other Shaolin Monks to escape danger, Yoshi keeps the whereabouts of the Shaolin monks a secret from Niya causing a rift among the kids. And it seems Sensei is keeping secrets from his students too. Will these secrets rip apart their trust and prevent them rescuing Kyoko before Lu Zeng performs one of his contemptible experiments on her? With the help of the Lin people, a mysterious group of forest people, the kids learn a valuable lesson about trust and honour, but will they ever be able to leave China and get back to the Cockroach Ryu in the Tateyama Mountains?

- Action packed adventure series will appeal to both boys and girls
- Introduces the exciting element of ninjas into the world of the samurai kids
- A celebration of difference

About The Author

Sandy Fussell lives south of Sydney with her husband and two sons. She studied mathematics at university, is intensely interested in history, and now works in IT. Her series, Samurai Kids has been hugely successful with Book 3, Shaolin Tiger named as a Notable Book, Younger Readers Category in the Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards, 2010 as well as being short-listed in the Speech Pathology Awards – Upper Primary Category, 2010.. Polar Boy, her first stand-alone novel was short-listed in 2009 for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year for Younger Readers, and her second stand-alone novel, Jaguar Warrior was released in March 2010.

About The Illustrator

Rhian Nest James has been working as a freelance illustrator for many years after graduating from Exeter College of Art with an Honours Degree in Illustration. She has produced illustrations for a wide variety of publishers and organisations but her speciality is children’s books, having illustrated over 60 children’s books and contributed illustrations to many more. Rhian moved to Sydney from her native Wales in 2002 and she continues to illustrate for others and work on her own projects. She is the illustrator of the best-selling Samurai Kids series (written by Sandy Fussell) and has recently illustrated the award-winning fiction title Toppling written by Sally Murphy.