You’ve probably seen Toki Tobun’s 16th century scroll “Monkeys Seizing the Moon’s Shadow.” The painting is based on an ancient Buddhist story about 500 monkeys who, fearing that the moon’s shadow has fallen into a well, grab each other’s tails in an attempt to catch the moon’s shadow.
Author and illustrator Demi has shared hundreds of spiritual stories with children through her writing and art. She brings to life the story of red, yellow, orange and brown monkeys trying to recover the fallen moon. The monkeys are eager to work together and equally eager to accomplish their very important mission. When the lowest monkey reaches the surface and tries to grab the moon, needless to say, it shatters into a million pieces. The expressions on the monkeys' faces, ranging from determination to shock to terror, are priceless.
Demi ends the story with the oldest monkey seeing that there is indeed a moon in the sky and calling on all the other monkeys to look at the moon: “There's a new moon in the sky! The old moon must have been thrown down the well!” and all the monkeys become very happy.
Children between the ages of 4 and 8 will enjoy this silly story, which will also help them understand the meaning of the words of Buddha that Demme quotes at the end of the book.
“Things are rarely as they seem.
“Don't look down
Well
The vastness of the sky.
“The ignorant
Just look at the surface,
or the occurrence of an event.
So they get confused
Illusion and reality. Therefore,
It's important to look deeper
Getting to the heart of the situation
before taking any action.”
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