Profound Children’s Books

Doing our best to practice conscious parenting means being vigilant about what information and influences our children come in contact with. The kind of books we read them, and in time they read for themselves,  is an important part of this. The mainstream marketing children’s Disney stories and their ilk, lack for me a deeper appreciation of life and humanity that I hope to instill in my child. It was a great pleasure then when we first  discovered the books of  Jon J Muth.

His books are always my favorites to read.  There are two parts to a children’s book that are really crucial, the first is the illustration and the other is  obviously the story. As an illustrator Jon J Muth is very talented, his pictures have a warmth and intimacy  that I have found in few other book. The stories themselves carry profound human and spiritual teachings in a simple and unpretentious way.

 I think the child in me loves the idea of a giant panda zen master friend like Stillwater living in my neighbourhood and being a mentor/friend. Of course my little boy doesn’t get the joke in Zen Ties,  when Stillwater greets his young nephew Ku from a train, "hi Ku". Ku of course speaks in three metrical phrases of 5, 7, and 5 – a haiku.

Another favorite is The Three Questions,  a young boy Nikolai in his pursuit of the questions "When is the best time to do things? Who is the most important one? What is the right thing to do?". It was in this book that I first met the character ‘Old Turtle’, a mythic representation of the deepest wisdom.

Probably my favorite of all  is ‘Old Turtle and the Broken Truth’, authored by Douglas Wood.   Amazingly this children’s book goes to the very heart of the cause of all human conflict, and it’s resolution. This will be considered a classic by the time my son is buying books for his children.

I know that at the conscious level my 3 1/2-year-old boy probably doesn’t understand the depth and wisdom of these books. Until around age 8 children’s subconscious minds are wide open. So I know that on some level the repetition of reading these stories over the years, they are truths and values will be  absorbed.

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