Zen Ghosts by Jon J. Muth5/24/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() I was interested to note that while the kids seemed to love the book (and no one had any problem accepting a story that involved a giant talking panda!), quite a few of them were upset by the idea of the koan-a question designed to have no concrete answer. I always try to run the children's titles we review past age-appropriate readers, so I read Zen Ghosts to a group of first graders. In Zen Ghosts, Stillwater rounds out an evening of Halloween trick-or-treating by telling the children a ghost story based on a Zen koan (one of the questions Zen practitioners contemplate in their search for enlightenment) called Senjo and Her Soul are Separated. All three books feature a Zen Buddhist panda named Stillwater and his trio of young human friends: siblings Karl, Michael, and Addy. Zen Ghosts follows 2005's Caldecott Honor Book Zen Shorts and 2007's Zen Ties. ![]() It's short on words, but overflows with thought-provoking storytelling and gorgeous, glowing art. Muth's Zen Ghosts is an example of kid-friendly surrealism done absolutely right. Unlike the book we featured yesterday, Jon J. ![]()
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