Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children's Literature)
Three texts go side by side in this stunningly designed and illustrated volume. In one tale Wabi Sabi, a cat living in Kyoto, learns that her name has a meaning that is “hard to explain.” Wabi Sabi first asks her cat friend Snowball what it means. “It’s a kind of beauty,” she notes. Rascal the dog claims it is “too hard to explain to someone like you.” A bird sends Wabi Sabi on a journey. The cat proceeds through the busy city to the woods. There she meets a monkey who tries to explain, telling her, “Listen. Watch. Feel.” “Simple things are beautiful.” Seeing herself in her bowl of tea, Wabi Sabi seems to begin to understand. On her way home, she stops by the Silver Palace, enjoying its simple beauty, composing three poems. At home she seems to comprehend the feeling and her name at last. Along with her story, appropriate haiku and haibun appear in English on the pages, as do others in Japanese characters, translated at the end. The collage illustrations, each distinctly unique on its double page, are bound to open vertically, perhaps relating to the way scroll paintings are hung, and what a variety of materials are employed! Some are purloined from nature; others, where a specific color or texture is called for to create the desired effect, are manufactured. Seeking out and discovering the inventive relationships between the images and the subtle texts is a delight. Note that the portrait of Wabi Sabi staring at us with wide eyes on the paper jacket is very different from the cover beneath, and do not pass by the end pages. There are notes on the history of the concept of wabi sabi and on haiku and haibun, in addition to the translation of those Japanese poems in the text. This book is a tour de force, with meanings to be discovered on many levels. 2008, Little Brown and Company, $16.99. Ages 3 to Adult.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2008 (Vol. 76, No. 18))
The Japanese concept of wabi sabi, or the art of finding "beauty and harmony in what is simple," is explored textually and visually in this story of a Japanese cat named Wabi Sabi who wonders what her name means when a visitor asks her mistress. "That's hard to explain," her mistress replies, initiating Wabi Sabi's quest to find a definition. Her feline pal Snowball tells Wabi Sabi her name refers to "a kind of beauty," while Rascal the dog hints it has something to do with the ordinary and simple. A confused Wabi Sabi journeys to the woods of Mount Hiei where the wise old monkey Kosho ceremoniously makes tea in an old wooden bowl to illustrate wabi sabi. Surrounded by nature, Wabi Sabi eventually understands that "simple things are beautiful" and returns home enlightened. Reibstein's plain yet poetic text, which deftly incorporates original and traditional Japanese haiku, works harmoniously with Young's deceptively simple, vertically oriented collages of natural and manmade materials to create their own wabi sabi. Simply beautiful. (notes, translations of Japanese haiku) 2008, Little, Brown, 40p, $16.99. Category: Picture book. Ages 6 to 10. Starred Review. © 2008 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Jo Anna Patton (Library Media Connection, June 2009)
A young cat, interested in knowing the meaning of her name, Wabi Sabi, travels around to question different animals. It is only when she finds the wise old monkey at the Silver Temple that she discovers that her name means ‘finding real beauty in unexpected places.’ The strength of this book lies in its depth. On a basic level is the story itself, which draws the reader into the cat’s journey. On another level is the artwork provided by well-known children’s author/illustrator Ed Young. Each page is laid out in color highlighted with a haiku in Japanese. Finally, the end of the book provides a history of the phrase, Wabi Sabi, and an English translation for all of the Japanese haiku presented. Recommended. 2008, Little, Brown & Company, 40pp., $16.99 hc. Ages 7 to 10.

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, March 2009 (Vol. 62, No. 7))
Wabi Sabi is the name of a cat and the name of a concept, and when Wabi Sabi the cat becomes curious about the meaning of her name, she begins to ask for an explanation. She receives answers that don’t help from a cat friend and a dog neighbor, so she journeys to Mount Hiei to ask her question of wise Kosho the monkey. While taking tea with Kosho, she beings to understand the paradoxical beauty of plainness and returns home to a new appreciation of her simple surroundings and herself. This is an interesting and artistic project, but unfortunately the story is on the thin side and the evocations of the wabi sabi concept frustratingly coy and confusing; the English-language haiku embedded in the story are variable, with some providing vivid images and other merely expository. Young’s mixed-media art is the real draw here, with the vertical layout across spreads lending a tranquil feeling through its compressed movement: collage predominates in a dazzling array of textures, patterns, and sources, with touches of the illustrator’s hallmark smoky charcoal at times. Though some spreads draw more attention to the intricacy of their construction than to their overall artistic picture, there’s plenty to marvel at in the visuals. Nearly every spread includes a classic Japanese haiku in Japanese writing from either Basho or Shiki; a closing spread offers more information on their history and provides English translation. Ultimately, the book is too often artful rather than artistic, and the elements of its construction don’t really cohere into an effective whole. Readers will therefore be better served on the haiku front by Spivak’s stellar Grass Sandals: The Travels of Basho (BCCB 7/97), and their own research will net them some more graspable explorations of wabi sabi; this does, though, offer some beautiful bookmaking, and youngsters looking for some inspiration on art projects may find it here. Explanations of wabi sabi and of haiku are appended Review Code: Ad -- Additional book of acceptable quality for collections needing more material in the area. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2008, Little, 32p., $16.99. Grades 4-7.