Book Review: “Zen Shorts” by Jon J. Muth

Short meditations from Jon J. Muth

I’ve reached my year-anniversary at First Book, a literacy nonprofit that works with the publishing industry to get brand-new books to low-income kids in the U.S. and Canada. At this point, I feel I’ve gained enough exposure to the children’s book arena to share some great titles, so here we have it. I’ll add a weekly post with a new title, so vamos a la bibioteca!

Book: Zen Shorts

Author: Jon J. Muth

Publisher: Scholastic, 2005

Awards: Caldecott Honor; 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year

About the Book: Stillwater, the giant panda who lives next door to Addy, Michael, and Karl, introduces himself in his slight panda accent when his umbrella flies from his yard to the children’s yard. As their relationships grow, Stillwater learns of the individual struggles of the children and offers each one a different story as a guide to a solution. Muth weaves two tales from Zen Buddhist literature and one from the Taoist tradition into “Zen Shorts,” illustrating each one with beautiful, simple black and white pictures which compliment the full-pigmented watercolors with which Muth creates Addy, Michael, and Karl’s world. “Zen Shorts” offers ‘ideas to puzzle over’ to all readers in a warm, whimsical way and is a book to be treasured and shared.