Over several days, Karl, Michael, and Addy each spend time alone with Stillwater as the bear shares both fun and Zen stories, while also posing a philosophical question to each child. In this tale, a giant panda named Stillwater appears at the home of three children. Zen Shorts contains another simple story that poses three thoughtful questions and imparts a resonant message based on Zen teachings. In Publishers Weekly, a reviewer praised Muth's 'misty, evocative watercolors' as well as the text, which is 'moral without being moralistic,' while in Kirkus Reviews a critic dubbed The Three Questions 'a soaring achievement.' 'When is the best time to do things? Who is the most important one?, and What is the right thing to do?' are the questions raised in the author-illustrator's gentle story about a boy named Nikolai who learns to rely on the natural wisdom of animals.

In The Three Questions, based on a story by noted Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, Muth encouraged young readers to consider the needs of others as well as oneself when making decisions. In addition to illustrating texts for a variety of children's-book authors, he has also created original texts to pair with his highly praised watercolor art. With the birth of his own children, Muth naturally began to turn toward children's literature, and he took account of a new potential audience with the need to hear other messages.

For him, comic-book illustration is 'a natural forum for expressions of angst and questioning one's place in the universe.'

DeMatteis and portions of Neil Gaiman's well-known Sandman comic-book epic, Muth also wrote and illustrated several original story arcs based on existing characters and published in their entirety as graphic novels, among them Dracula: A Symphony in Moonlight and Nightmares for Marvel Comics and Swamp Thing: Roots for DC Comics. In addition to developing and illustrating the groundbreaking Moonshadow series written by J. Muth began his professional career working as a comic-book illustrator, and quickly established himself as a talent in that field. Determined to expand his influences, Muth traveled throughout England, Austria, Germany, and Japan, studying not only drawing and painting, but also stone sculpture, sho (brush calligraphy), and printmaking in classes and as an apprentice. Muth debuted his paintings and drawings in a one-man invitational exhibit at age eighteen at Wilmington College. Muth's mother took her son to museums across the United States, exposing him to the works of a wide variety of paintings, prints, drawings, and other art forms. Muth inherited his passion for the graphic arts while growing up as the son of an art teacher.

M by Jon J. Muth