Personally though, I actually happen to find the illustrations of the pandas, and especially some of the larger depictions of Stillwater, a bit overbearing, even potentially frightening (and yes, I do think that if I had had Zen Ties read to me when I was a young child, I might indeed have found Stillwater a bit visually creepy at first, at least until I realised what a truly wonderful character he actually is). Muth depicts/paints landscapes and buildings. Now I do think that for the most part, the featured pictures work well enough with the presented text, and I do love the way Jon J. However, I do have to admit that I was not and am not all that keen on some of the accompanying illustrations for Zen Ties. Zen Ties is therefore and also a book I would warmly recommend to and for both adults and children, a wonderful collection of sweetness and wisdom, where both joy and sadness, delight and seriousness are presented in small, enjoyable and easily digested portions (sweet, satisfying and enlightening all at once, all at the same time).

For example, when Miss Whitaker talks about the roots of words, one can see that these roots are not only important for words and plants, as she mentions, but also that real friendships equally require strong roots as well, and that these roots must be nurtured and studied in order for them to flourish. Muth’s narrative, there are in Zen Ties also presented not only delightful haikus and plays on words, but there also exist sparkling flashes of very much and important pieces of wisdom and philosophy. But beneath the seeming simplicity of Jon J. Muth's Zen Ties is that it truly is 'deceptively simple.' For on the surface, it is basically just a sweet story of friendship and yes, one that even the youngest children will (or should) easily enjoy and understand.

So yes, the one term that does come to my mind whenever I read Jon J.

Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth