Masato's Garden

Cultivating calm in a garden built of rocks
Worried about his sick grandfather, Johnny discovers tranquility and calm in the quiet peace of his friend Masato's rock garden. Ages 5 and up.
Masato introduces his friend Johnny to the tranquility and calm of his family's meditative rock garden. In the garden, Johnny finds respite from his worries and renewed confidence in the resilience of his ailing grandfather.
Contemplation and meditation in nature can help calm, restore, and bring a renewed sense of tranquility and possibility to children.
Story behind story = "Children experience all sorts of fears, worries, and anxieties, but can lack the emotional resources to address them. I wrote this book during the coronavirus pandemic, in the swirl of an anxious world trying to deal with an incredible sense of uncertainty and human vulnerability. Of course, older adults were the most physically vulnerable population. Children were living this moment as well as adults, and often without the resources—internal and external—to adequately deal with it. Contemplation and meditation in nature can be a balm at any time, and Zen rock gardens provide an ideal space for such practices. I wanted to write a story for children that would portray this reality with characters, plot and a setting considerate of their interests, understandings and needs."Story behind story = "In my early twenties, I spent a year teaching at a girl's high school in northern Japan on the island of Hokkaido. During that year, I accompanied students on an annual school trip that included visits to Kyoto and Tokyo and some well-known Zen rock gardens in those cities. Those gardens, their incredible, spare beauty and the sense of tranquility, calm, and imagination they encourage and convey, remain an enduring and affectionate memory for me to this day, some forty years later."