Under the Bodhi Tree: A Story of the Buddha

The problem with most picture-book biographies of the Buddha is that they either soften the four sights out of recognition or they get tangled up trying to explain enlightenment. Deborah Hopkinson, an experienced biographer for this age group, doesn’t do either. She tells the story straight: a prince named Siddhartha grows up inside a palace, his father shields him from anything unpleasant, he eventually goes outside, he sees what life is, and he leaves to find out how to help. He sits under a tree. He understands. He spends the rest of his life teaching.

Kailey Whitman’s watercolours do the heavy lifting on tone. They’re soft, warm, lightly stylized — not the gold-leaf grandeur of the Demi Buddha on this list, more the register of a quiet read-aloud. The Bodhi tree itself is the visual anchor of the book and recurs as a motif from the first spread to the last.

What sets this book apart from the small shelf of Buddha picture-book biographies is the editorial confidence. Hopkinson resists the urge to put “and the Buddha taught us to be kind” at the end of every page. She trusts the story to do its own work. The brief author’s note at the back gives a parent or teacher the historical scaffolding they need to answer follow-up questions without padding the main text with it.

A good first book about the Buddha for a 5-year-old, and a respectable classroom read-aloud for an early-elementary world religions or compassion unit. Pairs naturally with Zen Shorts, which delivers the teaching tone the biography deliberately holds back from.

For an older or more visually-oriented child, Demi’s 1996 Buddha — also on this list — covers similar ground with gold-leaf grandeur. The two complement each other.