ALL FOR THE BEST!: The Secret to Happiness

Wilhelm's (the Little Panda books) workmanlike retelling of an Eastern folktale with Buddhist underpinnings makes a case for acceptance. When a bandit steals a carpet weaver's sheep, the victim's response is unlike that of his vengeful neighbors: "It will be for the best." So it seems, for the apprehended bandit must give the weaver a horse as penance. Now the neighbors rejoice, but the weaver offers the same placid response, "It will be for the best." Wilhelm depicts similar misfortunes and triumphs as scenes within carpets woven by the serene protagonist. When the horse escapes, the artist shows a snake beside the broken pickets of the paddock as the animal literally leaps out of the scene onto a white background; the rug's patterned border echoes the triangular design of the snake's scales. Only when the weaver explains to his grandson his philosophy does Wilhelm render the proceedings on a series of borderless spreads. Unfortunately, the protagonist's verbose explanation of his equanimity detracts from the elegant simplicity of the story's message ("Life is like the wrong side of a carpet. We see many different colored threads running every which way. They seem to make no sense at all. But one day... in this life or thereafter... we will see the right side of the carpet... that it has all made a perfect pattern!"). Still, the weaver's example may inspire some new thoughts on how best to navigate life's unexpected turns. Ages 4-8. (Apr.)