I have just ordered this most beautiful looking book from Amazon, called Come on, Rain!. It is the picture book companion to Karen Hesse’s Newbery Award winning intermediate novel Out of the Dust. The extract and description on Amazon has me writing this with tingles, isn’t it amazing when books do that?

A creeper of hope circles round my bones.
“Come on, rain!” I whisper.

Apart from Karen Hesse’s beautiful poetry, this book is illustrated by one of my favourites, Jon J. Muth. Muth’s book Zen Shorts is a New York Times bestseller and was awarded an honor for the 2006 Caldecott Medal. Zen Shorts is in fact more than a picture book, it is actually a fable, or three. Three children wake up one morning to find a giant panda called Stillwater sitting in their backyard with a red umbrella. Stillwater tells each child a story, a meditation, that is based upon Zen and Taoist tales that have been told for centuries.

Muth has so cleverly and softly melded these ancient teachings into a gorgeous modern picture book that is so beautifully illustrated with the most amazing watercolours. They make it absolutely a book of art.

There is a beautiful collectors’ edition of Zen Shorts available on Amazon too, which comes in a slipcase and a plush version of Stillwater; I’m so tempted!

Zen Ties is the new book and again stars the wise and gentle Stillwater but also introduces his nephew Koo a haiku-speaking panda. What is so lovely about both these picture books is that they are not patronising or forceful, children can take from the stories what they want and it will probably be something different each time.

I also have one of Muth’s other picture books, The Three Questions which is a retelling of Tolstoy’s short story of the same name. All of these books are special so much so that I even handle them differently, I find myself runnning my hand over the page wanting to touch the beauty and the creativity. True love!