This story introduces young readers to classical and primitive sculpture and other three dimensional forms both real and imaginary. The Shaper is the story of a lonely old man who carves gargoyles and cupids for the masses in the cities. Inspired by a book he found when he was a boy, the old man fills his private life in his small cabin on the mountain with creatures that he shapes with his hands and his imagination. At night he dreams of the images in his book, the great sculpture that others have made through the centuries. By day he transforms the common objects around him into fanciful beings both beautiful and strange. When the gargoyle factory burns down he is freed to finally create his greatest masterpiece.