Buddha at Bedtime: Tales of Love and Wisdom

I was under the impression that this was a small little Buddhism bedtime themed story and I was absolutely blown away when I received this amazing book with over 118 pages. Cover to cover it is brightly illustrated and filled with stories. Each story has a themed lesson and at the end a little Buddha character named Hotei gives your child a piece of wisdom to take from it. The layout of the book is PERFECT in the front you have a table of contents listing the title of each story so you can allow your child to choose based on a title. It also has a brief intro on Buddhism and how to get the most use out of the book. In the back there's an index that will tell you what themes are in each story, such as "bullying" or "anger". This helps you locate stories that could be beneficial to your child depending on things they are dealing with or issues they are having trouble with. There is also an intro into meditation which I also thought was wonderful. If I could give it more stars, I would. Based on the price my expectations were just a small picture book, but this is so so so much more. I highly recommend this book and this Author. I only have one left in the series to buy.

My 4yo daughter likes this book and so do I! It makes it so easy to be an A+ parent at reading time. Unlike some of the other childrens books with traditional buddhist animal stories, this one is well translated into English that's appropriate for 4-8 years of age. And I love that the authors chose to include a few descriptive vocabulary words that are a bit advanced for my 4yo. ... kids can't build great vocabularies without learning new words -- but they include just the right amount of them per story.Each story begins with a short paragraph primer encouraging the youngster to pay attention to the important parts of the tale -- in a fun way. It finishes each story with a little paragraph to help the youngster pull out the moral of the story. It encourages a short and meaningful conversation. Sure, you can do this on your own with any book, but parents get tired, hurried and lazy.The artwork is beautiful, and there is the perfect amount of it. Not too much that the young listener gets distracted... just enough to get the creative imagination started.It's almost hard to believe you get this big book for this price. A++ on value.

We bought this after a recommendation from a friend.I love it probably as much as my eight year old!They are easy short stories that I have either read with him, or he has read himself. And the morals are good and easy to understand and grasp too.Excited for our newborn to grow up hearing these!

No matter your religious affiliation, or lack of, this book is FANTASTIC and can be read to ALL ages...really. Our girls are 4 and 5 and the 4 year old rarely has the attention span for many of the books our 5 year old does. But, since this book's stories are short, they are perfect for kids (and adults...my Mom liked it so much she bought one for herself!) and adults alike. At the end of the story, I gave each child a chance to think about and come up with a "moral" or something they learned from the story. They LOVED doing that, and though they didn't always actually get the one written in two sentences at the end, they came up with lots of other ideas that were ALSO in there. GET THIS BOOK. For Christians that feel they should ONLY read things that teach "Christian" morals, you won't feel that this goes against ANY teachings in your faith. Its not a book of religion. It doesn't try to sell another faith at all. These are all really important, basic (but not so basic that they will annoy you. These are things that kids should hear frequently while developing what kind of person they want to be, and that development needs reinforcement for years and years and YEARS...and adults need this primer too as a reminder, or as an eye opener. I LOVE this book, and am on here to find more just like it. :)

I recently bought "Buddha at Bedtime" in my effort to give my son examples of mindfulness and happiness and share gentle teachings without being preachy. He has been delighted with the stories and illustrations in this book.We skip the sentence at the beginning, "Shall we find out? Let's see!" - it feels a bit condescending to me and unnecessary to the story. And if I even try to read the moral at the end, my son (who is 5) will say, "Mama, stop it," because even he feels it becomes too preachy. (As do I. Kids are smarter than that - they don't need a moral summed up for them in my experience - they get it.) But the rest of it - the stories and the illustrations - are wonderful. My son has been asking exclusively for this book every bedtime since we began reading it - and usually we have three different books. So that's really saying something!

My daughters love this book. It's one of the most requested books for bedtime reading. They love the illustrations and I love the morals of the stories. I am not Buddhist, nor do I subscribe to any other religion, but this book has awesome stories and principles that my children, who are 5 and 7, can understand and relate to.The book is very well made and I know it will last to be enjoyed by future generations in my family. I think this is my favorite children's book yet. I would recommend it for non-religious families, especially families who are raising freethinkers. I can also see this book being well loved in religious homes.It is a well compiled book and it has tips on getting your children in the right place of mind and calming the mood. I would definitely recommend this book to other parents and guardians of young children.I am hoping the next book is just as wonderful.