What a sweet and beautiful tale rooted in Chinese philosophy.
We follow a young boy trying to understand his feelings in a strange world while he is being meaningful lessons by the smartest Ox and rabbit I've ever seen.
This is a lovely book for anyone having a hard day or a hard week.

Thank you Net Galley and Clarkson Potter for an ARC in exchange for a review.

STUNNING, BEAUTIFUL, GORGEOUS ARTWORK! I love the pictures so much. This book also has a lot of valuable life lessons. I loved it very much!

I requested “The Oxherd Boy” because I was starving for a graphic novel I could finish in a couple of hours and the synopsis vaguely reminded me of “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” which I loved.
If you also liked that book or are just looking for a beautiful, meaningful graphic novel I recommend this one.
I am not at all familiar with any strand of Chinese philosophy or religious beliefs so you don’t need to be either to appreciate the beauty and wisdom present here.
I think one of the protagonists being a young boy added a lot of humanity to the story and the fact that this book was written with the author’s young son in mind is felt throughout the entire story.
While I think the words I read will always stay with me, there was something about the art that took my breath away. I wish I could inject these illustrations into my bloodstream. While I could physically touch the border of each illustration on my screen, there was such a sense of endlessness to each page that I could almost feel the coldness of the air, the texture of the grass or the wetness of the water. The art provoked such a visceral reaction in me I would love to see them as giant reproductions in real life.
I laughed, I cried, it was exactly what I needed to read when the world around me seemed to be the scariest it has ever been and there is no way to avoid it without feeling like you are turning away from your fellow’s suffering, and no way to interact with it without scarring yourself. While reading this book I was able to breathe for a little bit which I haven’t been able to do for weeks.
Thank you to NetGalley, Clarkson Potter and Ten Speed Press for this DRC.

Exquisite. This book of parables beautifully balances wordless pages of beautiful artwork with bare pages featuring a single profound statement. The interspersed structure allows a breath-like rhythm to the read, which flows organically with the subject material. This book feels timelessly alive.

What is more of a good time than reading a book filled with wisdom of a child, an ox, and a rabbit? What a lovely journey— pure and wise and ever so beautifully gentle.

— 4.5 ⚝

thank you to netgalley, the author and the publisher for an e-arc of this collection of parables. all thoughts are my own and not influenced in any way.

if you are a fan of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy, Big Panda and Tiny Dragon by James Norbury, Buddha Doodles by Molly Hahn or even Winnie the Pooh, this is for you. this was absolutely brilliant. the art is stunning, gorgeous, show stopping. i was more awestruck with every page i turned. the quotes are so profound and seem like something we all collectively believe intrinsically but sometimes, reading it is what you need for it to hit you in the feels. it utilises the gongbi style of art, something that i have not seen much of before so i was absolutely mesmerized. i recommened this to everyone that is looking for a short, mesmerizing collection of parables that examines life through the lenses of taoism, buddhism and confucianism to connect to and resonate with.

"After all is said and done, there is nothing lovelier than an afternoon with nothing to do."

"Sometimes, when we say we want to be happy, what we really want is to be healed."

"There are songs inside me that no one can play but myself. Whether others listen or not, I am responsible for the music I make."

Thank you netgalley for an advanced Arc

Reading this was a delight with stunning art throughout the book, the lessons in this book for children & even adults is put s0 beautifully & simple. Lessons about love, understanding, friendship, as well as lessons about how to be with urself when hard times hit.

I will be suggesting this to my mates daughter

The Oxherd Boy is beautifully illustrated and written in the style of many books with a moral tale to tell.
The boy, the Ox and the Rabbit all have wholesome messages and words of wisdom. I am sure this book will be a very popular gift.

This was such an enjoyable, beautiful read. Very simple but also extremely accessible, and I loved the illustrations so much. I can see this book being enjoyed by adults and being read to younger children, and I feel like a book that can be enjoyed at that range is very special. The teachings in this story felt kind and thoughtful and tugged at my heart i’m ways I wasn’t expecting them to, and I cannot wait to get ahold of this physical book to give as a gift so others as I think it’d make such a thoughtful present.

A heartwarming Chinese fable of a little boy, an ox and a rabbit. They teach eachother lessons along the way. One of my favorite lines went like this - "Sometimes," responded the ox, "when we say we want to be happy, what we really want is to be healed." Another line is "Don't be afraid of going slowly," comforted the rabbit. "Only be afraid to stand still."

It was a great book. I will be purchasing it in our library once it is released in March of 2024. Thank you NetGalley and Regina Linke for the ARC of The Oxherd Boy.

This was a gorgeous collection that managed to intersperse very helpful and gorgeous wit and wisdom in a very accessible manner.

Very much similar to The Boy The Mole The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy, you can consider this as another version which has wisdom and life lessons from everyday walks of life. A little boy learns valuable lessons from the ox and his surroundings. I find the illustrations quite calming. The writing is minimal but wholesome. Choose this book for bedtime stories and for group reads. It will be the best!

Thank you, Clarkson Porter/Ten Speed Press, for the advance reading copy.

This book was beautiful! The illustrations were gorgeous and detailed. I really enjoyed reading these thoughtful and deep messages. I couldn't read this all in one sitting; I needed time to process the book over several days.

This book was just enjoyable to read. The art was so beautiful. It was a very simplistic read but also made me question things. It pulled from different philosophies that are taught by different people.

This book follows a young boy an ox and a rabbit. You meet other characters along the way as well that help influence the boy. It makes it seem like each day the young boy learns something new and is always asking questions about the days. He is also just trying to live his best life and help others around him live their best lives with honesty and love.

I really enjoyed the calmness it provided while reading. Although it does ask hard questions or bring up strong issues it never had me feeling negatively if anything it made me think more positively and try to look at myself and ask questions but in a more positive light then I think I normally would have done otherwise.

The mixture between the philosophical questions, the young curious child’s story and the art was a perfect marriage for this book.

**Disclaimer: I recieved a free eARC of this through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this opportunity.  I liked the simple design of this story.  I don't really read very many parables, but this was well-written and had lovely illustrations.  There was some good lessons folded into it.  The animal characters were a fun addition.

This book was such a pleasure to read. The simple parables and tenets of Buddhism and Taoism flow through the pages as a continual melody of words. The illustrations are beautifully and artfully crafted and compliment the book in its entirety. I would definitely recommend this book for my library collection.

Beautiful art centers a narrative that provides a brief introduction into various Eastern philosophies, ultimately focusing on connection and community.

I wasn't familiar with gongbi, a detailed style of Chinese brush painting. That's what this graphic novel about the conversations of a little boy, a rabbit and an ox.

As the author's introduction says, the boy's character is inspired by Taoism (he looks at the world without judging right from wrong), the ox by Buddhism (he knows we all experience suffering and thus are capable of compassion) and the rabbit by Confucianism (she is concerned with how we look after each other here on Earth).

What you notice at first is the beauty of the illustrations. They are easily the most moving, gentle, loving and powerful images I've seen in a book for quite some time.

From there, the book is a series of vignettes without much, if any, transition at times as the boy and the rabbit notice things to talk about.

Sometimes statements are made on a blank page, such as "The most difficult choice we can make is whether to be accepted for what we are not, or seen for who we truly are."

Others appear with illustrations that words cannot describe adequately. For example, there's a page that shows the oxherd boy holding the rabbit in his arms. Tenderness and love emanates from the page. It includes these words: "What's important is not how much we do, but how much we love. So let's do what inspires us to love."

The words are direct but not aggressive, judge-y or preachy as often happens with books that talk about compassion, love or community. This book simply IS compassion, love and community.

I've no idea the intended age range for this book. It's written in a way that a young child could enjoy it, especially with a parent reading it aloud. But it's also perfect for an adult who likes simple books with a classic feel on how to be, aka contemplative wisdom. In the acknowledgments, the author mentions feeling a part of the community of Hindu spirituality, Stoic philosophy and Sufi poetry. That's the sense I got, too.

One last excerpt, from a page showing the oxherd boy sitting on a tree stump:

"This is the greatest challenge of being alive:

To witness the injustice of the world and not allow it to consume our light."

#netgalley

This graphic novel is a lovely meditation on life through the lens of Eastern religious philosophies. While the oxherd boy (Taoism) is the central character, he’s closely flanked by an ox (Buddhism) and a rabbit (Confucianism) as well as a wise grandfather, a tiger and other minor characters. The art is in the the style of contemporary Chinese gongbi, which fits the text and sentiment. This book is for fans of Big Panda & Tiny Dragon and, similarly, is worth having in your personal library to read, reflect and re-read. I read this ARC via NetGalley but will be adding it to my wishlist for owning a copy. I recommend!

This was an absolutely lovely little book that explores the basics of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism through the figures of the ox, oxherd boy, and the rabbit. This would be an excellent book to explore a few pages at a time before bed—every few pages delivering a simple but profound lesson with directness and clarity of language and calming illustrations. This is a book to savor and lose yourself in.

As a high school English teacher who teaches translated Chinese literature, this would be an excellent way to explore some important foundations of traditional Chinese culture—perhaps pairing this book with a painting of the three “Vinegar Tasters”—one who reacts with a sour expression, a second who reacts with a bitter expression, and a third who reacts with a sweet expression, also illustrating symbolically the perspectives embodied in Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism..