Dianne Snyder (author)
Allen Say (illustrator)
The Boy of the Three-Year Nap
Houghton Mifflin, 1988
Set in pre-modern Japan, Dianne Snyder’s story of Taro and his widowed mother reminds us that even the most cunning of children may nevertheless be outwitted by their more experienced mothers. Taro’s laziness has earned him the nickname, “The Boy of the Three-Year Nap.” At the end of her patience and her resources, his mother urges Taro to work for the merchant. But slothful Taro would rather undertake a life of leisure and toward that end he masquerades as the ujigama, the town’s god, to take advantage of the merchant. Frightened, the merchant obeys the ujigama’s order to marry his daughter to Taro. But when he comes to ask the widow’s consent, she finds a way to cure Taro of his laziness.
In their style, clarity, and narrative humor, Allen Say’s illustrations remind one of Hokusai’s woodblock prints.
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