Skylar

Protagonist Quentin Coldwater is depressed, brilliant, and enamored with Fillory, a fictional fantasy world.  As Quentin has always felt distanced from reality, he is elated to learn that not only does magic exist, but Fillory is real as well.  Not only that, but Fillory is a dangerous place...perfect for a magician to practice his craft.

Far more than an investigation into a grisly tiger attack, Vaillant gives us a detailed account of survival in the Russian "taiga". Things do not go well for poachers who disrespect the balance between Amur (or Siberian) tigers and man. The setting, northeast Russia, is almost mystical in its plant and animal diversity. Some scientists suspect the area wasn't frozen during the last ice age.

John Muth is one of my favorite artists. His watercolors are magnificent and endearing. Couple that with a giant panda that imparts Zen advice and you have one lovely children's book. The short stories that Stillwater, the giant panda, tells us are short meditations rooted in Zen Budddhism and Taoism. His admirable goal is to calm readers' minds, so we may see the true world more clearly.