

One night, William spots the gardener, follows him, and gets a topiary lesson. Something good." A topiary parrot appears, an elephant, a magnificent dragon townspeople of varying ages and ethnicities rejoice, and the spreads take on livelier hues. The town, initially rendered in gray pencil, shows a blush of color as people gather to marvel: "Something was happening on Grimloch Lane. In the morning, the man's artistry is revealed: the tree has been shaped into an owl like the one William has drawn.

After dark, readers see the stranger at work with his shears in a tree in front of the building. William, an orphan, sits glumly in front of his orphanage scratching an owl in the dirt as a stranger walks by. Brothers Terry and Eric Fan set their first story in a dreary town and imagine what happens when it is transformed by a gardener's skill.
