Zen Shorts Author: Jon Muth | Language: English | ISBN:
0439789230 | Format: PDF
Zen Shorts Description
- Paperback: 36 pages
- Publisher: Scholastic Inc. (2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0439789230
- ISBN-13: 978-0439789233
- Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 9 x 0.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
If at first you don't create the world's most philosophically sound picture book, try try again. When illustrator and sometime graphic novelist (though you wouldn't know it from his bookflaps) Jon J. Muth turned a Tolstoy short story into the picture book, "The Three Questions", response from professional journals was mixed. People liked the IDEA of making Tolstoy accessible to children but "The Three Questions" just didn't seem to cut it. When the book didn't get much in the way of attention, Muth could've abandoned the whole idea of bringing larger ideas to very young people. Instead, he came right back with a heaping plateful of Zen with panda. "Zen Shorts" is the result and remains perhaps the most beautiful picture to be published in the year of 2005. To call it classy doesn't even begin to cover it.
A panda appears in the backyard of three children. He is holding a large red umbrella (one that he holds over the three children as they talk) and is extraordinarily polite. The book notes that he, "spoke with a slight panda accent". With this initial meeting, the children slowly befriend their new neighbor, Stillwater. When Addy comes to his home with a housewarming gift, Stillwater returns the favor with the gift of a small story about his Uncle Ry. Michael visits the panda at the top of a tall tree. There they discuss, with the help of another story, what luck is and how a person can never really know what is going to happen to them next. Karl, the youngest of the three, brings too many toys to swim with in Stillwater's wading pool. At the end of the day, the two have had a good time, but Karl has wasted much of it by being mad at his older brother. On the way home, Stillwater tells a tale of letting go of what you cannot change.
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