Free Buddhist Animal Wisdom Stories Ebooks Online
Around the beginning of the common era, Indian Buddhists began to collect fables, or jataka tales, illuminating various human virtues and foibles—from kindness, cooperation, loyalty and self-discipline on the one hand to greed, pride, foolishness, and treachery on the other. Instead of populating these stories with people, they cast the animals of their immediate environment in the leading roles—which may have given the tales a universal appeal that helped them travel around the world, surfacing in the Middle East as Aesop's fables and in various other guises throughout East and Southeast Asia, Africa, Russia, and Europe. Author and painter Mark McGinnis has collected over forty of these hallowed popular tales and retold them in vividly poetic yet accessible language, their original Buddhist messages firmly intact. Each story is accompanied with a beautifully rendered full-color painting, making this an equally attractive book for children and adults, whether Buddhist or not, who love fine stories about their fellow wise (and foolish) creatures.
Hardcover: 112 pages
Publisher: Weatherhill (November 9, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0834805510
ISBN-13: 978-0834805514
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 0.6 x 11.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #380,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #18 in Books > Children's Books > Religions > Eastern #218 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Mythology & Folk Tales > Fairy Tales #406 in Books > Children's Books > Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths > Multicultural
Age Range: 4 - 8 years
Grade Level: Preschool - 3
I purchased this book to read to my 6 year old son. At first he thought it was 'boring' and not quite the type of book he was used to for a bedtime story. Over the last month we have been reading it, one story at a time, and he has come to appreciate that each story opens up a conversation for us. We try to discern the moral of the story (which is what each story presents) and then we discuss whether or not we agree with the moral. So far we have found 2 stories in this book with contradicting morals--the Myna Bird and the Burning Tree tells of birds who met their doom because they did not listen to a warning. The Panicked Rabbit tells of an entire forest who 'followed the herd' after a warning, but there was no danger after all. I found this confusing at first, but it did offer my son and I an opportunity to scrutinize the morals and decide for ourselves which one we thought was smarter. The stories are very short (1/2 to 2 pages ea) and contain some rather sophisticated words, which we appreciate as they help us expand our vocabulary.
The illustrations in this book are incredibly lovely. They just made me want to tear them out and have them framed. I also enjoyed the selection of stories. It is definitely a book "for children of all ages," as the saying goes. Perhaps I should mention that the text requires reading ability beyond that of young people in the early grades. But one can read aloud to younger children...
At first my kids didn't want me to read this for them. After all they mostly read their own books now, but after I started reading for them they couldn't get enough of it. We read a story and then discuss the message in the story. Sometimes if the kids are in a dilemma we will refer back to the wisdom stories and say, what did you learn from the story. My oldest son took the book and started reading it on his own. It's a great book for both kids and adults.
I grew up on fairy tales, dark stories with ambiguous meanings. These short little stories set in Asia are gentler, simpler, and yet interesting to children and adults.They make perfect bedtimes stories because you can indulge your child and read two or three! She enjoys choosing just which ones she feels like hearing tonight. The pantheon of clever animals and simple peasants seems superior to me to all the royalty and witches of traditional fairy tales. You definitely don't need to have Buddhist leanings to enjoy these; most of them would be just as applicable to Christianity.
very good book. My son is 6 yrs old and really loves the variety of stories and the stories themselves. We talk about the lessons learned. We both enjoy that some lessons have humor to them. They have wisdom and are an enjoyable read. I recommend this book greatly for a child of 5 to 9 yrs old.
This is a wonderful book to read to little ones! My daughters love the illustrations and the stories are good conversation starters. Great book!
This book is full of some great stories to share with your kids. Each story has a unique lesson to be learned about life, kindness, forgiveness, and more. A great read for all. My kids really enjoyed the stories and the beautiful pictures.
This book is exceptionally good for bed-time stories. The animal antics come surrounded with a context of compassion -- for foolishness, greed, pride, even cruelty. Animals of all these common addictions are on the way to awareness, realizing how stupid they've been. The comedy is more refreshing and thought provoking than Aesop's Fables. McGinnis gives a plain, transparent rendition of these ancient Buddhist tales, and his artwork is good enough to hang.
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