Books like Zen Ghosts
By Jon J. Muth
For families who love Halloween's costumes and candy but also crave the quiet, thoughtful moment after the trick-or-treating is done, this is the story that slows the night down. Autumn evening, hushed and mysterious, with a gentle Zen stillness underneath the Halloween thrill.
A boy named Rudy longs to fly more than anything, so he adopts a wild hawk, hoping their bond will somehow let him join it in the sky.
Five toy friends sit on a windowsill, each waiting for something to happen — the owl for the moon, the pig for the rain, the bear for the wind, the puppy for the snow — while the rabbit just likes to wait.
A boy in bustling Tokyo asks a musician what the most beautiful sound is, learns it's silence, and sets off through the noisy city to find it.
When the first snowflakes fall, grown-ups like the postman, the farmer, and the policeman's wife hurry to prepare, while the children run outside to catch lacy snowflakes on their tongues.
A picture book that turns time itself into pictures — a seed waiting to grow, a wave rushing fast, a wiggly tooth, a sunset fading — inviting kids to notice time all around them.
Tiny forest children living among the roots of an old pine tree move through a full year of seasons, swimming and picking berries in summer, gathering mushrooms with fairies in fall, and feeding animal friends through the snow.
A boy and his dog believe a few falling snowflakes will turn into something wonderful, even while every grown-up around them insists it's nothing at all.
A girl who feels closer to horses than to people follows a wild herd across the plains, choosing their freedom over the life her village expects for her.
A young dreamer who learns to read from her mother's tombstone runs away with a poet at sixteen, then on a stormy night in Switzerland invents a monster story that becomes Frankenstein.
A collection of poems follows a pond through the seasons, from spring thaw to autumn chill, giving voice to water boatmen, painted turtles, diving beetles, and duckweed along the way.
A giant panda named Stillwater moves in next door and befriends three siblings, sharing an ancient Zen tale with each one that quietly reshapes how they see the world.
After finding a message in a bottle, a curious troll and his friend raft out to Lonely Island, hit a storm at sea, and are rescued by a resourceful new friend named Too-Ticky.
