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: Don’t 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.