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Buddha Stories
A golden goose demonstrates the wealth of kindness. A rabbit learns not to believe everything he hears. Throughout the ages, moral tales have been passed down from one generation to the next. Centuries ago in China, hundreds of parables were told by the Buddha to his devoted followers. His messages became widespread through fables adapted by famous storytellers like Aesop and La Fontaine. In this collection, the author has chosen ten of the most engaging classic tales from the Buddha's works. Compiled and illustrated by Demi, this wonderful collection of stories is sure to draw young readers into the ancient teachings of the Buddha, teachings that are as relevant today as they were over two thousand years ago.
26 pages, Hardcover
First published March 15, 1997
4 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
About the author
Demi
179 books179 followersDemi (September 2, 1942) born Charlotte Dumaresq Hunt, is an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator. During her career she has published over 300 titles.
Demi was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is the great-grand daughter of the American painter William Morris Hunt, and the great-grand niece of architect Richard Morris Hunt. Demi earned her nickname as a young child when her father started calling her demi because she was half the size of her sister.
She studied art at Instituto Allende, Mexico, and with Sister Corita at the Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. She was a Fulbright scholar at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India where she received her Master’s degree.
Demi is known for her biographies for spiritual figures including Buddha, Krishna, Lao Tzu, Jesus, Mary (mother of Jesus), Muhammad, Rumi, Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama.
In 1990, Demi and her husband Tze-si “Jesse” Huang represented the United States at the First Children’s International Book Conference in Beijing.
Source: Wikipedia
Demi was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is the great-grand daughter of the American painter William Morris Hunt, and the great-grand niece of architect Richard Morris Hunt. Demi earned her nickname as a young child when her father started calling her demi because she was half the size of her sister.
She studied art at Instituto Allende, Mexico, and with Sister Corita at the Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. She was a Fulbright scholar at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India where she received her Master’s degree.
Demi is known for her biographies for spiritual figures including Buddha, Krishna, Lao Tzu, Jesus, Mary (mother of Jesus), Muhammad, Rumi, Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama.
In 1990, Demi and her husband Tze-si “Jesse” Huang represented the United States at the First Children’s International Book Conference in Beijing.
Source: Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
November 14, 2011
Beautiful gold print on indigo pages makes this book attractive to all who see it. The book opens with a brief paragraph about a book of Buddhist teaching made with gold wood block print on indigo in around 600 AD, and three paragraphs from the author about his love for the themes of Buddhist teaching.
Each page spread features one page of story, with the moral printed in a single sentence at the end, and a facing page with an illustration. Stories are either all animal characters or animals interacting with humans, and the morals are well done -- punchy and powerful. The illustrations are all line drawings of gold on the indigo background, and you have to look carefully (in good light!) to absorb the depiction.
This is a wonderful book for all who want to respectfully present Buddhism to children or adults.
For those who do not follow Buddhism, it is full of 'earthly wisdom'. I was particularly struck by "The Magic Elephant" whose moral is stated: "Pride leads to a fall, but humility is rewarded in the end," which combines the ideas of Proverbs 16:18 and James 4:10 (with the obvious elimination of James' reference to God, who is completely absent in Buddhism, as well as this work). On the other hand, non-Buddhists will find the moral of "The Clever Crab", "If you cheat on the earth, the earth will cheat on you" a bit more challenging to affirm and/or explain to a student.
Ultimately, this is a strong title with a strong Indian flare along the lines of Aesop's Fables that would fit very comfortably in today's trendy "values based" education curriculum. For our homeschool, it was a good opportunity to cultivate the "compassionate discernment" that Tapestry of Grace (our curriculum) embraces.
Each page spread features one page of story, with the moral printed in a single sentence at the end, and a facing page with an illustration. Stories are either all animal characters or animals interacting with humans, and the morals are well done -- punchy and powerful. The illustrations are all line drawings of gold on the indigo background, and you have to look carefully (in good light!) to absorb the depiction.
This is a wonderful book for all who want to respectfully present Buddhism to children or adults.
For those who do not follow Buddhism, it is full of 'earthly wisdom'. I was particularly struck by "The Magic Elephant" whose moral is stated: "Pride leads to a fall, but humility is rewarded in the end," which combines the ideas of Proverbs 16:18 and James 4:10 (with the obvious elimination of James' reference to God, who is completely absent in Buddhism, as well as this work). On the other hand, non-Buddhists will find the moral of "The Clever Crab", "If you cheat on the earth, the earth will cheat on you" a bit more challenging to affirm and/or explain to a student.
Ultimately, this is a strong title with a strong Indian flare along the lines of Aesop's Fables that would fit very comfortably in today's trendy "values based" education curriculum. For our homeschool, it was a good opportunity to cultivate the "compassionate discernment" that Tapestry of Grace (our curriculum) embraces.
August 23, 2025
Prolific American picture book author and artist Demi retells eleven Jataka Tales—tales attributed to the Buddha—in this gorgeous picture book. Inspired by the world's first printed book—a Buddhist suttra or teaching made with woodblocks in 600 A.D., with gold print on indigo pages—Demi's text and illustrations here appear in gold, on deep, blue-black pages. The stories included are:
The Lion King, in which that leonine ruler must reassure his subjects, when a panicked rabbit leaps to the conclusion that the earth is breaking up after a coconut falls to the ground and cracks, and causes a general panic. This story, which concluded with the moral, "When one person tells a falsehood, one hundred repeat it as true," reminds me of folktales like Chicken Licken (AKA Henny Penny), in which the sky is falling.
The Turtle and the Geese, in which a turtle is befriended by a gaggle of geese, and offered a ride to their beautiful home, if he will promise to keep his mouth closes, and thereby not let go of the stick being used to carry him through the air. The sad ending teaches the lesson that "Disaster can come from opening you mouth at the wrong time."
The Black Bull, in which a beautiful black bull, always treated well by his human, suggests a contest that will benefit him, only to be mistreated. Refusing to comply, the bull causes the human to lose the contest, and reproaches him for his conduct afterward. Taught how to behave to one who has served him faithfully, the human wins the next contest, teaching the reader to "Treat others with kindness and your deeds will be rewarded."
The Beautiful Parrots, in which two gorgeous birds are captured and made much of in the king's palace, until the attention they are given is supplanted by a new monkey. One parrot is wise, and does not believe all attention should go to him, while the other laments his change of status. This tale teaches that "Riches and fame come and go like the wind."
The Cunning Wolf, in which a trapped wolf vows to reform his ways, but fails when tested by the Buddha, who takes the shape of a goat. The moral of this story is that "It is easier to make a promise than to keep it."
The Little Gray Donkey, in which a dishonest merchant disguises his donkey as a lion, and sets him loose in the farmers' fields at night to eat, confident that the frightened farmed will do nothing, thereby allowing his donkey to steal their grain or rice. The trick is discovered when the merchant becomes too cocky and does this during the day, teaching the listener "Don't be deceived by a donkey in a lion's skin." This was an interesting inversion of the better known (at least today) story of the wolf in sheep's clothing!
The Clever Crab, in which a crane tricks a pondful of fish into allowing him to carry them to a better residence, in the form of a nearby lake, only to eat the fish in his cave nearby. When the crane tries this trick on the crane, he soon finds the tables turned, teaching that "If you cheat on the earth, the earth will cheat on you."
The Monkey King, in which this primate leader teaches a human king a lesson, when the king and his men attempt to take all of the mangos from the monkeys' tree. By helping his subjects to escape the humans, the monkey teaches the human king what his priorities should be, imparting the moral that "If the family lives in harmony, all affairs will prosper."
The Golden Goose, in which a kindhearted goose gives his golden feathers to help an impoverished woman and her two daughters, only for the woman to become greedy, and decide the rob him of all of those feathers. Her daughters, horrified by her actions, help the goose, and are rewarded, while the mother suffers for the rest of her life, teaching that "The greatest wealth is the wealth of kindness."
The Magic Pig, in which an old woman cares for her two pigs as if they were her children, and refuses to part with them for any amount of money. When ruffians attempt to steal the pigs, one begins to recite the prayer, "The Perfection of Love," thereby taming the bad hearts of all around, and teaching that "Heaven remembers those whose hearts are true."
The Magic Elephant, in which a king becomes jealous of his beautiful white elephant, thinking it receives more praise than he does, and devises a series of tests meant to destroy the elephant. When the elephant trainer see how things are going, he exhorts the elephant to fly away and find a more worthy king, teaching that "Pride leads to a fall, but humility is rewarded in the end."
I enjoyed Buddha Stories immensely, both for the tales themselves and for the gorgeous artwork. I appreciated the unusual but striking design choice here, although it did sometimes make reading a challenge, given the dark background of the pages. I think perhaps the gold ink of the text should have been bolder (perhaps larger text?) to aid in reading, but other than this, I have no aesthetic criticism of the book, which is just beautiful. I can't critique the author for the front dust-jacket blurb which mentions Aesop as a reteller of these tales—in fact, Aesop and Buddha were roughly contemporaneous, with stories set down in print centuries later, and there is still some debate as to which culture influenced which, with many of these tale—as she is unlikely to have written the copy there. In any case, this was a wonderful collection of stories in its own right, and also a wonderful collection of Buddhist teachings. I think it would pair very nicely with Sherab Chödzin and Alexandra Kohn's The Wisdom of the Crows and Other Buddhist Tales , which I have also enjoyed. Recommended to anyone seeking Buddhist content for children, as well as to those who appreciate Demi's charming illustrations.
The Lion King, in which that leonine ruler must reassure his subjects, when a panicked rabbit leaps to the conclusion that the earth is breaking up after a coconut falls to the ground and cracks, and causes a general panic. This story, which concluded with the moral, "When one person tells a falsehood, one hundred repeat it as true," reminds me of folktales like Chicken Licken (AKA Henny Penny), in which the sky is falling.
The Turtle and the Geese, in which a turtle is befriended by a gaggle of geese, and offered a ride to their beautiful home, if he will promise to keep his mouth closes, and thereby not let go of the stick being used to carry him through the air. The sad ending teaches the lesson that "Disaster can come from opening you mouth at the wrong time."
The Black Bull, in which a beautiful black bull, always treated well by his human, suggests a contest that will benefit him, only to be mistreated. Refusing to comply, the bull causes the human to lose the contest, and reproaches him for his conduct afterward. Taught how to behave to one who has served him faithfully, the human wins the next contest, teaching the reader to "Treat others with kindness and your deeds will be rewarded."
The Beautiful Parrots, in which two gorgeous birds are captured and made much of in the king's palace, until the attention they are given is supplanted by a new monkey. One parrot is wise, and does not believe all attention should go to him, while the other laments his change of status. This tale teaches that "Riches and fame come and go like the wind."
The Cunning Wolf, in which a trapped wolf vows to reform his ways, but fails when tested by the Buddha, who takes the shape of a goat. The moral of this story is that "It is easier to make a promise than to keep it."
The Little Gray Donkey, in which a dishonest merchant disguises his donkey as a lion, and sets him loose in the farmers' fields at night to eat, confident that the frightened farmed will do nothing, thereby allowing his donkey to steal their grain or rice. The trick is discovered when the merchant becomes too cocky and does this during the day, teaching the listener "Don't be deceived by a donkey in a lion's skin." This was an interesting inversion of the better known (at least today) story of the wolf in sheep's clothing!
The Clever Crab, in which a crane tricks a pondful of fish into allowing him to carry them to a better residence, in the form of a nearby lake, only to eat the fish in his cave nearby. When the crane tries this trick on the crane, he soon finds the tables turned, teaching that "If you cheat on the earth, the earth will cheat on you."
The Monkey King, in which this primate leader teaches a human king a lesson, when the king and his men attempt to take all of the mangos from the monkeys' tree. By helping his subjects to escape the humans, the monkey teaches the human king what his priorities should be, imparting the moral that "If the family lives in harmony, all affairs will prosper."
The Golden Goose, in which a kindhearted goose gives his golden feathers to help an impoverished woman and her two daughters, only for the woman to become greedy, and decide the rob him of all of those feathers. Her daughters, horrified by her actions, help the goose, and are rewarded, while the mother suffers for the rest of her life, teaching that "The greatest wealth is the wealth of kindness."
The Magic Pig, in which an old woman cares for her two pigs as if they were her children, and refuses to part with them for any amount of money. When ruffians attempt to steal the pigs, one begins to recite the prayer, "The Perfection of Love," thereby taming the bad hearts of all around, and teaching that "Heaven remembers those whose hearts are true."
The Magic Elephant, in which a king becomes jealous of his beautiful white elephant, thinking it receives more praise than he does, and devises a series of tests meant to destroy the elephant. When the elephant trainer see how things are going, he exhorts the elephant to fly away and find a more worthy king, teaching that "Pride leads to a fall, but humility is rewarded in the end."
I enjoyed Buddha Stories immensely, both for the tales themselves and for the gorgeous artwork. I appreciated the unusual but striking design choice here, although it did sometimes make reading a challenge, given the dark background of the pages. I think perhaps the gold ink of the text should have been bolder (perhaps larger text?) to aid in reading, but other than this, I have no aesthetic criticism of the book, which is just beautiful. I can't critique the author for the front dust-jacket blurb which mentions Aesop as a reteller of these tales—in fact, Aesop and Buddha were roughly contemporaneous, with stories set down in print centuries later, and there is still some debate as to which culture influenced which, with many of these tale—as she is unlikely to have written the copy there. In any case, this was a wonderful collection of stories in its own right, and also a wonderful collection of Buddhist teachings. I think it would pair very nicely with Sherab Chödzin and Alexandra Kohn's The Wisdom of the Crows and Other Buddhist Tales , which I have also enjoyed. Recommended to anyone seeking Buddhist content for children, as well as to those who appreciate Demi's charming illustrations.
March 4, 2010
I usually don’t like stories where “and the moral of the story is…” but this one won me over.
The book is gorgeous. Gold writing and illustrations on dark blue pages. The result is really striking and different.
Each story and its moral down at the bottom of the page is pithy and discussion worthy.
This could make a good gift book for both adults and children.
The book is gorgeous. Gold writing and illustrations on dark blue pages. The result is really striking and different.
Each story and its moral down at the bottom of the page is pithy and discussion worthy.
This could make a good gift book for both adults and children.
Want to read
March 10, 2009Thanks, Abigail! I'm going to watch for this one!
July 13, 2017
I picked this up on a whim at the library as I've read few other books by Demi and this looked intriguing. Unfortunately, this did run into a problem that was no fault of the author that I occasionally get with library books, particularly if they're taken from the children's section. It had been repaired, and not well, so some of the pages were completely out of order, which led to a bit of annoyance on my part. I had honestly never heard any of these very short stories before, although the parallel version of "The Golden Goose" is intriguing me kind of a lot. These felt like Aesop to me in places; I doubt most of them were intended for children originally. The illustrations were very striking, and I like the reasoning she gave for the gold-on-dark-blue look.
October 13, 2025
This book is very interesting. Buddha Stories is a collection of Jataka tales that illustrate ancient stories about the Buddha's past lives. I like these stories because each one can teach students a different life lesson. There are tales of compassion, self-control, wisdom, and honesty. The illustrations in the book are very symbolic and match the meditative tone that accompanies the stories. I am not sure that this book would work in my future classroom, as there is not much focus on Buddhism in high school history, but it could be used to help relay Buddhism when talking about countries in Asia that follow it. It is simplified and geared towards younger readers, so high schoolers may find it to be an easy read. But there are plenty of things to learn from it.
September 10, 2017
Gorgeous!
September 23, 2019
My daughter enjoyed these Jataka stories, which reminded us of Aesop's fables. The gold artwork is a lovely addition.
October 18, 2023
Gorgeous.
June 15, 2013
This is a compilation of fables that the Buddha taught to his disciples/followers. Each story ends with a moral. There is an author’s note on the front end page. The note explains the artwork and gives the reader information on Jatakas tales. Many stories will sound familiar to readers. The Lion King is similar to Chicken Little and the Little Gray Donkey is similar to The Donkey in the Lions Skin.
September 28, 2011
This book is another good book by Demi, who can easily give a really good idea of what different religions and stories are about. This is a compilation of stories that have morals to them, and I would definitely use these in a classroom to show morals. The stories are short and all have animals in them, so kids will really enjoy them and be able to understand the lesson behind them.
April 3, 2011
A beautiful book of dark indigo/black pages and gold ink with wonderful, thought-provoking tales. Author's notes explains the intent of the gold on dark dark blue and it is understandable, however, it makes it hard to read.
April 4, 2016
Typically I love the richness of Demi's illustrations. However, here I feel she didn't do justice to the material. It is all black and gold which could be fine but seems flat here.
Basically the some of the Jataka stories, sort of Aesop meets Buddhism.
Basically the some of the Jataka stories, sort of Aesop meets Buddhism.
August 14, 2012
Gorgeous book and lovely, short stories. Our librarian suggested this as a companion to a South Asian novel our students reading, and the fables really did pair nicely. I just wantd more stories, 10 felt too short.
February 25, 2016
I am currently new to Buddhism. I enjoyed these parables very much. I do not think of this as a children's book since the knowledge contained considers such deep thought. I feel like this is a great book for everyone, but especially for others who are interested in learning the dharma.
August 2, 2009
Gorgeous book, with indigo pages and gold text and pictures, apparently to mimic the first printed book. Lovely and familiar stories.
September 29, 2009
Great book with AMAZING illustrations!
January 16, 2011
1/16/11 3.5
January 1, 2013
You do not need to be a Buddhist to appreciate the messages this books teaches. A great book with great morals. :3
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews