Hello, friends! Today, we’re starting our four-day extravaganza of Halloween books! To kick things off, we’ve chosen Zen Ghosts by Jon J. Muth, the third book in the delightful yet deep Stillwater Panda series.

It’s Halloween, and Stillwater Panda stops by to visit his young friends Addy, Michael and Karl, who are preparing their Halloween costumes. Karl is going to be a monster, Michael is deciding between an owl and a pirate (maybe an owl pirate?), and Addy is going to be a radiant moon princess. In fact, her lovely costume reminds Stillwater of a Halloween story, and he invites his friends to meet up with him after trick-or-treating so that he can have a storyteller perform it for them. The friends and Stillwater meet and head to Stillwater’s home, where they find that the storyteller is a panda who looks identical to their familiar friend. He imparts a tale of love and duty, and leaves them, and the reader, with a sense of mysterious wonder, as well as the question: what makes a ghost?

I’ve always been a fan of the Stillwater series, which teaches children Zen concepts, koans and thought experiments through the stories of a quiet, wise Zen panda and his young human friends. And this is a great addition to series: the serene way the story (and story-within-a-story) are told is lovely to read, and left open-ended enough that it encourages readers to contemplate its meaning, as any good Zen lesson should do. The art here is just as lovely as in previous Stillwater books, this time capturing the crisp, bright colors of fall and the ethereal environments of the ghost story beautifully. The length may be pushing it for the youngest bookworms, but JJ loved it. A strange and wonderful Halloween story full of mystery and wonder, and it’s Baby Bookworm approved!