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The Stealing Monster

Led by a brilliant kid   detective Holly, a time travel Kong Fu boy Jim, a strong girl raised by mice family Wild, a BA boy who often makes accidents and a half cooked duck Ya Ya who escaped from oven, worked together as a group of local handy heroes. Each of them showed their strengths and finally defeated a huge stealing monster, who steals people’s most treasured things, such as good eyesight, acute hearings, strength, and happy memories.

The book is imaginative and fantastic. In one chapter the handy heroes must find angry papers to enter into the monster’s cave. An angry paper is defined as a piece of paper that was misused or made angry by what was written on it. The handy heroes looked around and soon found a drawing of a cat used by mouse, a letter that notified a person that they were fired, and a diagnosis that indicated a fatal illness.

This is not only an exciting adventure story, but also a clever bilingual book that helps readers learn English under the guidance of handy heroes. In each chapter there are new words, questions, songs, mazes, and puzzles that make English study a fun and interactive game. In the preface of the book, the author Christopher Parsons, aka Mr. Magic, writes: “Professor Parsons understands the strength and challenges of Chinese learners, and he is here to help.”

Parsons likes to put on magic shows and write magic stories. He came to China in 1994 and has acted in many TV shows over the years. He was a DJ for China Radio International’ Easy FM, and hosted an English study show on CETV1. As a professor at Renmin University of China, Parsons has written five novels and edited over twenty academic English books for Chinese students. His wife, Holly, has translated the Handy Heroes series into Chinese and helps draw pictures in the book.

In the Handy Heroes 2: “Zombie Tag” (available soon), a real monster takes over on a Halloween night and threatens to turn all handy heroes into infected zombies.