My friend Erin quoted a small excerpt for this book to me more than a dozen years ago, and at the time I borrowed the book from the library, read it in under five minutes, and returned it. Still, I am often drawn back. Over the years, I've read it multiple times, and can't quite get over the quiet charm of these Zen koans and ancient stories.
This children's book has a dreamy quality to it; there are lost moments in time, transitions you might expect to be more detailed, but it's enveloped in a coziness such that you don't mind.
Like most children's picture books, there's not a lot of heavy lifting, narratively. Pre-schooler Karl shouts for his brother when he spots a "really big" bear in the backyard. When Karl, Michael, and their elder sister Addy go outside, they meet Stillwater, an enormous panda (with a slight panda accent) who has come to rescue his umbrella (a Japanese parasol) which the wind has carried from his yard to theirs.
As the story progresses, each of the children has his or her own lovely, private, little visit with Stillwater (whom, I'm amused to note, is always naked, except for when he wears enormous bathing trunks to swim in the inflatable pool). During each visit, Stillwater shares a Zen story. First, we hear of Stillwater's poor Uncle Ry, who gives a gift to a robber; next, he shares the (often-told) tale of the farmer's philosophy about good and bad luck; and finally, the story that brought me to the book, and the one that brings me back time and again, about the two monks and the idea of "letting go."
Each tale can be read to/by a tiny tot who might be charmed by the simple water colors, discussed with an older child, who may struggle with the literal vs. metaphorical meanings, and pondered (as I have done) by an adult, trying to live within the wise, Zen philosophies of each tale.
I'd much rather have a gentle, tea-taking panda philosopher like Stillwater in my neighborhood than the menace that is the cat in the hat.