Sky Sweeper

About this book

Young Takeboki needs a job and the monks in the temple need a flower keeper - so Takeboki sets to work sweeping up flowers and leaves and creating swirling miniature worlds of his own in the temple garden. As the years go by others ask him: Dont you want a better job? But as the seasons shift each as beautiful as the last Takeboki knows the pleasures of nature and of humbly doing a job well. He is happy. Luminous collage illustrations created from delicate Japanese papers by a Caldecott Honor artist bring to life this thought-provoking tale that with its Zen Buddhist sensibility has much to say about work wisdom and the joy of being true to oneself.