Zen Tails: Bruno Dreams of Ice Cream

by Peter Whitfield, Nancy Bevington (Illustrator)

Simply Read Books

28 pages, Hardcover

Published August 31, 2005

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Up and Down" was such a great bedtime staple, based on a koan, it bore repetition well and I loved the idea that a story like this could be embedded in my daughter's mind and yield insights years or decades later. So this book from the same series seemed a sure bet. I read it aloud at bedtime without a pre-screening, and found myself describing how some monastic dog solves his problems by beating up jerks down by the river. There is no violence in the source material, I don't know why the author thought it would be good to spice it up for a children's book. Im appalled.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one book in a series of books (three so far) that offers a Buddhist philosophy and story, adapted for children. The moral of the story is a worthwhile one, although some of the philosophy is fairly lofty. The illustrations are pretty good and the characters are interesting, though typecast, animals. I prefer the Zen Ties books by Jon J. Muth, however.