“Peculiar Stories”
Written by Mora Fields
Published by O Street Publishing

Peculiar Stories is a great collection of short tales, directed at children of an early reader level. I’m glad Mora, the author, sent me a copy.

While not officially a book on Buddhism, or even Buddhist folk tales, the stories told are very similar in flavor and morality to those of the Jataka Tales.

We follow a young, 9 year old girl, via her own words and thoughts. She speaks of visiting, and being visited, by a a family member she simply calls Uncle E.

Uncle E is a very Zen like character with quick little quips of knowledge, and edgy koan like questions for the main character. With such questions like, “Well, I was wondering, do you think the train is the main thing, and the space between the cars is in the background, or are we looking mostly at the space, and the train cars are just passing through it?”, the reader is challenged to think on their toes.

My 7 year old has been curious about the book, and I am happy to pass it on to him. The stories are thought provoking, yet done so in a way that readers of this level can understand and contemplate on.

“Peculiar Stories” is not directly written for one spiritual group, nor does it seem to be overtly spiritual at all, and that’s not a bad thing. It encompasses witty stories that a child can not only appreciate, but smile at while reading.