Basho and the River Stones

Basho and the River Stones (2004) Tim Myers and Oki S. Han

Somehow, I got it into my mind that this was a completely different kind of book.

This is a children’s book, and I have the kindle version, so keep that in mind because it affects how I feel about the book.

The story is about the Japanese poet Matsuo Basho who lived in the second half of the 17th century, and the poet’s relationship with the foxes.

For those not familiar with Japanese folklore, foxes are tricksters, but not like Anansi (from African folklore) or Coyote (from American folklore) or even Reynard the fox (of French folklore). They have the ability to appear as humans, and when they do, it is typically to play tricks upon the humans who live around them.

The story is one of greed and beauty and lessons learned, and is an interesting one.

My problem stemmed from reading it on the Kindle: The screen is too small to properly enjoy the tale, and it can’t be viewed on my computer, so I could see if larger.

If you click on the text, it expands to be more easily read, but … it just feels off to me. I like to be able to see the text and the images together, but the text expands and covers part of the images… essentially, I just found the experience frustrating. The text is too small to be read without magnifying, but magnifying covers up everything around the text.

That frustration ended up coloring how I feel about the story, I was distracted and irritated. Which isn’t the best way to read a book.

So, it was a nice story, but for me, the kindle is NOT ideal for reading it.
Rating: 4/10

Published by Two Lions

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