[dylanzhangdev]

Even for Chinese people, Journey to the West is a somewhat difficult text because it belongs to classical literature. Using some children's books published in recent years, and progressing gradually, might be a better approach?

[gcanyon]

In the late 1800s/early 1900s there were books published "in words of one syllable" -- e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonder...

More: https://triviumpursuit.com/childrens-books-in-words-of-one-s...

[bitwize]

Related: https://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/txt/al.html

[simedw]

This is a simplified version: Journey to the West in Easy Chinese by Jeff Pepper and Xiao Hui Wang. Otherwise, I would definitely have waited a bit before biting off something like this.