Zen Tails: Bruno Dreams of Ice Cream

by Peter Whitfield, Nancy Bevington (Illustrator)

Everyone has ice cream except Bruno, and he can't get his mind off the stuff. He tries and tries to get some ice cream, but no one wants to give him any. What to do? A fun story that teaches sharing and includes vivid, imaginative illustrations, Bruno Dreams of Ice Cream, the debut title in the Zen Tails series of beautifully illustrated philosophical tales adapted for children, shows how focused attention and caring for others brings freedom, happiness, and maybe even ice cream.

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.