The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese

I grew up with this book. My grandmother gave it to me as a little boy. She was a wonderful storyteller who lived in a far-off place (South Africa), and this was another wonderful story about another far-off place. Today, my canoe has eyes painted on it because of this story. I can't give it an unbiased review.

Besides, I suppose it's a pretty well-known book -- it's given its name to computer programs and ... more

Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth.

I was kind of surprised -- pleased, but surprised -- when I got home the other night and found my daughter asking me to read from her new book. Turns out my wife had signed up for a children's book club, joined to get the freebies and hung around until she found something worth the obligatory paying of the "time to buy something" piper.

I was even more pleased to see that it was by Jon J. Muth, because I'm a geek. A geek of the comics variety. And, uh, Muth... more

C is for China by Sungwan So.

This delightful abecedarium (one of my favorite words) is a photographic tour of China from abacus to zen (which is a bit of cheat, since "Zen" is Japanese for the school of Buddhism known as "Chan" in China). Hong Kong-born Sungwan was trained to be a philosopher and anthropologist, but wound up becoming a travel photographer... and, as it turns out, a pretty good... more