The Mountains of Tibet

This book is one of the best children's books I have ever read. It is also a wonderful, thoughtful book for adults to read. It has many messages - not the least of which is that the woodcutter thought he wanted to go different places while he was alive, but when given the choice he choose to live his life over again, but as a girl. His life had been happy. This message is important in today's world of always wanting more than you have. Although this book deals with the concept of re-incarnation it really does not exclude what a Christian child has been taught. I read this to my 6 year old last night and she had a lot of questions. I was able to explain to her that no one knows exactly what happens after you die, but these are some possibilities. He could have gone to heaven (Christian) or could come back to live another life (Buddist). This is a wonderful way to introduce Buddism to children. As another reader pointed out, the concept of having your loved ones around you in a different form is very comforting. The illustrations are also wonderful.

I heard this book from my child's psychologist. This book helps my daughter trememdously in the time in dealing with her father's tragic death. My daughter found it extremely comforting to know that not only her daddy was not in any pain, but also he got to make all those wonderful choices. She likes the endling that the main character comes back as a girl and still got to keep some sort of memory from previous life (love to fly a kite). Now she talks about her daddy could come back to earth as a seed to become a maple tree or a catepillar, then change into a most beautiful butterfly. She vows to be kind to all living things for they might be her daddy or some one she knows from the sky. In short, this book opens a great way to bring compassion and kindness into a child'd world. It transformed a tragic incident to a defining moment for my family. This book also comforts me dealing with my loss.

This book might be simple to read, but the meaning goes very deep. Like one of the readers said, the kids will get different meaning out of it at different ages. I read the book with my kids when they were very young, and this has been one of our favorite books. My kids are 14 and 15 now, and we are still talking and discussing about what the book teaches us about our lives.

We first started reading this book to our son when he was two. He is now nearly seven, evolving, emerging as all children do. The book, as we revisit it from time to time, speaks to each of us on different levels and in different ways, as all classics do. Deceptively simple, profound, beautifully drawn - it takes one through the stages of life and then into the mysterious realm of death where, you find, there is a choice: to come back, reborn as anything, anywhere in the universe (more choices) or to remain in the heavenly realm. Perhaps is is the message of choice, so dear to humans, that makes this a curiously reassuring book. I give it the highest recommendation for both children and adults alike...

The cycle of a young child's life, then death, and after-life is explained in a beautifully simple way. When death comes to a family, there is no easy way to explain it to a very young child (up to 7). This book softly describes the journey through a series of choices and can be interpreted many ways (reincarnation, heaven, etc). I have lent it to my friends over the years to help during hard times and the children (as well as the parents) have really appreciated it -- I believe it is a must-have for the library. It is a great pleasure to read aloud to my son and we have many times over the years.