Stillwater imparts his latest teachings in Zen Ghosts, a story of magic and mystery on Halloween night. Readers will fall easily into the rhythm of visits to Stillwater and his storytelling sessions, and many more will fall in love with the panda, whose shape and size offer the children many opportunities for cuddling. The first book in the series, Zen Shorts, received a Caldecott honor. In the last, a monk learns how to stop brooding and live in the present. In the next, a wise farmer demonstrates that good luck can quickly turn to bad luck and back again (a tale Ed Young also retold in The Lost Horse In the first, Stillwater tells Addy about his Uncle Ry, who disarms a robber by treating him like a guest (older readers will pick up from the closing author's note that 'Uncle Ry' is shorthand for the Zen hermit Ryokan Taigu). Muth (Illustrator) Karl, Michael, and Addy are intrigued with their new neighbor, Stillwater, a kindly giant panda who speaks with a slight panda accent, when he comes over to retrieve his red umbrella from their backyard. The panda chooses an appropriate Zen fable for each child, illustrated with rough-edged, Chinese-style brush-and-ink paintings on duotone pages, to play up the story-within-a-story structure. Speaking 'with a slight panda accent,' he introduces himself as Stillwater, and charms Addy and Michael-though Karl, the youngest, is still 'shy around bears he know.' Each day one of the children goes to visit Stillwater, revealing something of him- or herself. Three siblings befriend a giant panda when his red umbrella blows into their yard. He frames the trio of tales within the context of a suburban household. , and played up their spiritual elements with his elegant watercolors, here introduces three Zen stories from Japan. Muth, who has retold traditional stories such as Stone Soup

Zen shorts book