Zen Shorts by John J. Muth

I was completely charmed by Zen Shorts the moment I first saw the promotional material from Scholastic. I absolutely love John J. Muth’s watercolor illustrations that perfectly capture the peaceful and loving nature of Stillwater, the Buddhist panda. I’m glad the Caldecott committee agreed with me and bestowed the Honor Award upon the book.

I’m not so sure, though, that the intended audience liked it quite as much as we adults do.

According to Booklist,

“Muth's latest is both an accessible, strikingly illustrated story and a thought-provoking meditation. Here he incorporates short Buddhist tales, "Zen Shorts," into a story about three contemporary children. One rainy afternoon, a giant panda appears in the backyard of three siblings. Stillwater, the Panda, introduces himself, and during the next few days, the children separately visit him. Stillwater shares an afternoon of relaxing fun with each child; he also shares Zen stories, which give the children new views about the world and about each other.”

I assumed that children would think the panda was adorable, and would enjoy the three Buddhist tales. They might even be gently persuaded to view things with new perspective. For instance, one tale involves two monks who encountered a cross, imperious young lady who bossed her servants around and didn’t want to step out of her sedan chair into a muddy puddle. The older monk quickly picked her up and set her down on the other side of the puddle, but she just shoved him out of her way without thanking him. The younger monk spent the next several hours fuming, finally couldn’t stand it any longer and said, “That woman back there was very selfish and rude, but you picked her up on your back and carried her. Then she didn’t even thank you!” The older monk replied, “I set that woman down hours ago… Why are you still carrying her?”

My fourth-grade writing tutees were cynical. “That’s stupid,” they said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Why doesn’t it make sense?” I asked.

“The lady was rude. He shouldn’t have helped her.”

“Yes, but what do you think about the ending? Do you agree that the younger monk was making himself miserable?” Blank stares. “Do you get why the older monk said that?” No reply. “Because even though the lady was rude, the older monk just helped her and was done with it. The younger monk was the one who was still mad so many hours later.” Silence. “Well, do you like the panda?”

“He’s OK.”

I guess you just can’t please everybody.

Zen Shorts by John J. Muth

Tags: children's+books zen buddhist+tales pandas John+Muth