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Sky
Sweeper
illustrated by Holly Meade
Melanie Kroupa Books
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007
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*Starred
review, Kirkus
*Parents
Choice Silver Award, 2007
*S&P
Book Awards:
Best Spiritual Books of 2007
*Starred
review, Library Media Connection
*Skipping
Stones Honor Award:
Multicultural and International Books, 2008
*Lupine
Picture Book Honor Award, 2007
*Capitol
Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children, 2008
*Vermont
Red Clover List, 2008-2009. |
| From
the
book jacket: |
Can a single flower say more than words?
Young Takeboki needs a job, and the monks in
the temple need a Flower Keeper--so Takeboki sets to work. It’s the
Flower Keeper’s job to sweep up the springtime plum and cherry blossoms
in the temple garden. As the seasons change, Takeboki continues to find
pleasure in doing his job well--sweeping up flowers and leaves and
snow--and then creating swirling worlds of his own in the gravel and
sand of the temple garden.
Friends and family ask him: Shouldn’t you get
a better job? Wouldn’t you like to see more of the world? Takeboki
can’t answer those questions. All he knows is that as the seasons
shift, each one as beautiful as the last, he is happy.
Luminescent collage illustrations created from
delicate Japanese papers bring to life this thought-provoking parable
that, with its Buddhist sensibility, has much to say about work,
wisdom, and the possibility of discovering a world of unending delight
in one small garden.
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| A little
about the book: |
When I read about an
old-time job in Japan, that of Flower Keeper, the words and image
stayed with me, and a story began to unfold and evolve over the years.
I was
helped by my readers, especially Holly Meade, who had a vision of how
the text would work as a picture book and how it could be simplified to
focus on its most important messages about life, work, and happiness.
It makes me happy when I look at Holly's
beautiful artwork, and it makes me happy to hear the different
“lessons” people draw from the Flower Keeper's story. The story might touch off a
classroom
discussion, an exploration of philosophical questions such as: What is
play? What is work? What makes a good life? And of course, What makes a
person happy?
When I read Sky
Sweeper to Elizabeth Anderson’s class at Antilles School
in St.
Thomas, her fourth graders responded with a group poem about happiness:
WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY?
by Class 4A
What makes me
happy?
Reading gives me a good feeling
Basketball – I like to get the ball in the hoop
My PS2 – it’s electronic!
What makes me
happy?
Sailing – it’s my sport
Gliding across the water
Traveling around the world
Going sight-seeing
Swimming
I like to be under water
It’s nice and warm
What makes me
happy?
Gymnastics - being on my hands
instead of my feet
Golf – I’m good at it
I like to swing my driver
My Xbox – ‘cause I can control
the person in the game
What makes me
happy?
Playing with my kitty
I roll up a tin foil ball and she pounces on it
My parakeet--teaching it to sing
Sometimes it chirps loudly and annoyingly
but sometimes it chirps sweetly
Football – I like to score
What makes me
happy?
Kick ball
I like to kick the ball
Jumping in the pool
feeling the freezing water
Sleeping - I can be unconscious
I don’t know what’s going on
If something bad happens,
I won’t remember
When I’m awake -
acting
expressing a character
What makes me
happy?
Holidays
You get to be with your family
You get to get to spend time with them
You love them
And they love you.
And then someone in the class asked,
“What makes us ALL
happy?
And his classmates answered,
“Eating!”
The Flower Keeper's story might also lead to
an exploration of Japanese literary forms: haiku and haibun. Writing
haiku is already a popular activity in the classroom, but I’m hoping
children will be encourged to write without
the seventeen syllable rule
as an absolute. In fact, seventeen syllables create a poem that is
often too long and wordy to be called a haiku. The Haiku Society of
America adopted this definition:
1) An unrhymed Japanese poem recording
the essence of a moment keenly perceived,
in which Nature is linked to human nature.
It usually consists of seventeen onji [sound units].
2) A foreign adaptation of 1, usually written
in three lines totalling fewer than seventeen syllables.
Most important of all is the “haiku spirit.”
In her terrific teacher’s manual, The
Haiku Habit Workshop, Jeanne Emrich writes: “The haiku way is
just to say it--simply. Written in a very direct manner, haiku tell the
who, what, where, and when of the moment as the author perceived it
through his or her senses. The result of such a concrete description is
that the reader feels as if he or she also is having the experience.
And because commentary is kept to a minimum, the reader is free to come
to his or her own conclusions about what the experience means....”
Haibun is prose--a story, impression,
incident, description--which includes haiku. The haiku may be
crystallizations of the thoughts and images evoked by the prose, but
they are not directly related to it. They don’t summarize or moralize,
as the proverbial couplet might when it appears at the end of many
other kinds of stories. The haiku can be embedded in the prose or
simply come at the end of the piece.
Sky Sweeper
concludes with a haiku by Moritake, one of the most famous haiku in
Japanese literature. It evokes the garden setting for me, and the
mysteries, delights, and surprises one encounters in a garden. If one
wishes to seek out connections, Moritake’s haiku relates to the story
through the image of the blossom. Blossom is a “seasonal word,” which
many haiku contain to indicate time and place. It represents spring, a
time of birth and rebirth, and a connection to the Flower Keeper’s job
as well.
The butterfly, a creature of fragile beauty,
with a magically dramatic life cycle, also symbolizes life’s
preciousness--and transience. Is it any wonder that, for some Japanese,
butterflies represent the souls of the dead?
I like to think that the Sky Sweeper lives on,
if not in the butterfly, then in the spirit of the young gardener who
follows in his footsteps and shares his knowledge and his happiness.
I would also like to think, along with caring
for the temple garden, that the Flower Keeper cultivated “the seeds of
compassion," as Thich Nhat Hanh put it.
When I was working on Sky Sweeper, my
daughter introduced
me to the writing of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Buddhist monk who has
become one of the truly spiritual voices of our time. His teachings
promote the attainment of peace for ourselves and for the world. For
example, by not responding to anger with anger, we can create the
possibility of
turning our enemies into friends. Imagine if we lived in a world
governed by the teaching of non-violence!
In an article in Yoga Journal (Sept./Oct. 2003),
Thich Nhat Hanh
describes Buddha’s transformation of the arrows of Mara, the Evil
One, into flowers. Transforming negative emotions into positive ones,
he writes, will transform ourselves and others: “You soon see
that arrows shot at you come out of other people’s pain. You do not
feel injured...; instead you have only compassion....” He acknowledges
this may be difficult but teaches that, in this way, “We can all make
flowers out of arrows.”
To those who do not recognize the value of his work
and feel he should take a less “lowly” path in life, the Flower
Keeper responds not with anger but with empathy and good humor, a
fitting response for one who will ultimately smile with the inner peace
and contentment of Buddha himself, the same Buddha who smiled in his
flowery victory over Mara.
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| From the reviews: |
“Infused with a Buddhist sensibility, written in clear, minimalist
language, accompanied by rich, organic illustrations and culminating in
a haiku by Moritake, this is an origiinal fable not to be missed.” Kirkus, starred review.
"This is a complex, challenging story. Children will need help
connecting Gershator’s poetic, often Zen-influenced messages about
Takeboki’s sense of purpose and personal reward; his death adds even
more weight to the story. But Meade’s beautiful collage illustrations
of the earthly garden and glorious afterlife greatly enhance the
story’s accessibility and will help kids get closer to the text’s
religious and philosophical themes." Booklist
"Only after the old man's death do the monks realize that his humble
work has nourished their own serenity. Takeboki himself graduates to a
perfect heaven (for him): now he sweeps the sky. As Gershator explains
in a note, her story celebrates the rewards of meaningful work as well
as the artistry of Japanese gardens. Meade's mixed-media illustrations
(collage, paint, delicate line) intimately depict the dedication to a
simple-seeming task that is, in truth, an art." Hornbook
“The illustrations provide a bit of
foreshadowing, incorporating the figure of another smiling boy, the
future Flower Keeper, in later scenes.... Nicely constructed for
reading
aloud, this quiet story has a satisfying progression that might prompt
reflective discussion.” School
Library Journal
"As Gershator's (Rata-Pata-Scata-Fata)
resonant, lyrical tale opens, young Takeboki
takes a job as a Flower Keeper for the temple monks. Though his task is
to sweep up the fallen plum and cherry blossoms in their garden in
spring, the conscientious, content worker continues sweeping through
the other seasons--and many of them....Created from Japanese papers,
Meade's (Hush!) richly
textured, luminous collage illustrations are as simple and graceful as
Gershator's narrative. Like Takeboki's, theirs is a job well done." Publishers Weekly
"It is a beautiful story in both text and
illustration. An intriguing range of paper textures was employed in
creating all the collages where one finds children playing and people
working. Two kinds of Japanese/Buddhist gardens are represented in the
mixed-media illustrations: the Hill-and-Pond style garden and the Dry
Landscape garden. Due to the sophisticated theme, this will find its
greatest audience among older children and young adults. It is a story
that would generate a lot of discussion with middle and high school
students on a career day." Children's
Literature
"'Our age,' wrote Simone Weil just before her
death in 1943, 'has as its own particular mission, or vocation, the
creation of a civilization founded upon the spiritual nature of work.'
Yet today children grow up with few models of individuals who love
their jobs and try each day to do them to the best of their ability.
That's why this inspiring beautifully illustrated book by Phillis
Gershator is so welcome." Spiritualityandpractice.com
The serenity of a Japanese temple garden is captured in airy watercolor
and collage in this tribute to the sustenance that is found in work and
beauty.... Each beautifully composed page glows with clean color and
the delicate prints of origami paper. Takeboki's gentle soul is central
both to the pictures and the spare text. This is a satisfying and
thought-provoking book to share. Highly recommended. Library Media Connection, starred
review
Art by
Holly Meade
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