FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: USE THE NEWS FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES NEW TEACHER GUIDE
AND STATE STANDARDS CORRELATION

New Teacher Guide accompanies “The Monkey King,” a serialized story for students from Breakfast Serials

(San Francisco, CA, November 16, 2000) Use The News Foundation is pleased to announce its newest support of Breakfast Serials. The Foundation will create a Teacher Guide to accompany the serialized story of the classic Chinese folktale “The Monkey King.” The syndicated story from Breakfast Serials will appear in newspapers nationwide beginning January 1, 2001.

“The Monkey King” (for all grade levels) was written by Ji-li Jiang and illustrated by Hui Hui Su-Kennedy. Monkey King, the most famous comic creation in Chinese fiction, first appeared in “Journey to the West” — a novel of the Ming Dynasty by We Ch’eng-en. The ancient story follows the adventures of the charming but mischievous Monkey King. Readers follow Monkey’s search for immortality, that leads him to alternately charm and annoy the Great Jade Emperor. In short, it’s a fairy tale of triumphs over adversity as Monkey becomes more human even as he becomes god-like.

The Teacher Guide, available January 1, 2001, complements the serialized story and will contain chapter lessons, student activities, project suggestions, print and Internet resources, and a promotional ad. Each chapter lesson includes vocabulary lessons; literal, inferential and discussion questions; and a newspaper activity.

Use The News Foundation is making available a State Standards Correlation for “The Monkey King,” keying the instructional activities in the Guide to individual state standards. Each Teacher Guide costs $55; the customized state standards costs an additional $50 per newspaper.

“‘The Monkey King’ is an exciting new story from Breakfast Serials,” says Dr. Sherrye Dee Garrett, author of the Teacher Guide. “It has rich vocabulary and text structure. The story touches on many content areas from social studies and mathematics, to earth and life science. Parts of the story relate to attitudes and behavior that students will recognize in themselves. Other parts of the story invite students into the colorful world of imagination. The serialized story presents a great opportunity for classroom activities and newspaper contests.”

The Guide is similar to those Dr. Garrett created for previous Breakfast Serials offerings including “The Secret School,” “Orphan Journey Home,” “The Field of the Dogs,” “The Secret of Smith’s Hill,” “The Army of Two” and “The Black Squirrel.”

“If I have learned anything from directing Breakfast Serials, it’s that the American people are starved for literature in an accessible form,” says Linda Wright of Breakfast Serials. “This is why Breakfast Serials provides a unique, high-quality literacy program that promotes the habit of reading to the widest possible population at the lowest possible cost.”

“To form any habit takes practice,” says Linda Wright. “And as everyone knows, it’s much easier to practice with a team than to practice by oneself. Breakfast Serials knows that reading together in a community transforms the reading process from an intimate experience to a social activity. This increases the reader’s participation in the process, which in turn drives further reading. Newspapers maximize accessibility to our literature. In so doing, they promote community literacy.”

Breakfast Serials works with authors and illustrators to create original serialized literature for newspaper publication. Each story is published in installments.

Creators of “The Monkey King”

“The Monkey King” was written by Ji-li Jiang, a former science teacher from Shanghai, China. In 1992, Ji-li co-founded East West Exchange, Inc., which promotes and facilitates cultural and business exchanges between China and the western countries. Her award-winning book, “Red Scarf Girl,” tells the story of her family and neighborhood during the 1960s Cultural Revolution in China. Currently, Ji-li lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Illustrator Hui Hui Su-Kennedy, a native of Taiwan, as a young girl enjoyed drawing Chinese opera characters and their costumes. She moved to Alamogordo, New Mexico as a teenager, and went on to study at the Art Institute in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and the State

University of New York at Stony Brook. A resident of Brooklyn, New York, Hui Hui works as a designer and illustrator in New York City.

The Teacher Guide was written by Dr. Sherrye Dee Garrett, Executive Editor for Use The News, Inc. and former Educational Services Manager for Lancaster Newspapers, Inc. A recognized authority in the field of Newspaper in Education for more than 15 years, Sherrye is a widely-published author of NIE resources and a featured speaker at conferences and seminars around the country. Currently, Sherrye lives in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Use The News and Use The News Foundation

Use The News, Inc. is one of the nation’s fastest-growing educational services companies. It publishes a variety of distinguished educational resources for middle and secondary school curriculums.

Use The News Foundation seeks to develop educational projects that provide resources addressing human rights issues such as diversity, character education, health and nutrition, safety, disaster preparedness, the environment and the elimination of prejudice. Founded in August 1998, the Foundation is a nonprofit benefit corporation that fosters partnerships with schools, Newspaper in Education programs and their business sponsors. The Foundation provides fiscal sponsorship that aids these programs in the receipt of tax-deductible donations for their educational work.

For more information
Serialized novels from Breakfast Serials: Linda Wright, (303) 777-0538 or reader@rmi.net.
Breakfast Serials’ Teacher Guides: Katie Laws, (415) 503-1375 or katiesnie@aol.com.
Teacher Guide content or State Standards Correlation lists: Dr. Sherrye Garrett: sgarrett@stx.rr.com.
Services and resources available from Use The News Foundation: Dr. Betty L. Sullivan,
(415) 861-1637 or bettysnie@aol.com.
Information about the Foundation is also available at www.usethenews.com.