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swtmarie's review against another edition
3.0
We enjoyed reading this traditional Japanese folk tale. Good lesson on being lazy and clever at the same time!
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
4.0
Caldecott Honor picture book. Boy tricks his way into a rich family. With pretty good writing and very good art. Readable and in the end things work out okay.
bjyoung116's review against another edition
5.0
What a wonderful book! You are given small, but great, glimpses into Japanese culture. As I read this story to my kids my oldest daughter was asking me questions about the culture such as wearing kimonos and what a samurai was. What a great teachable moment. The story itself was also quite entertaining, since I'm sure we all know someone with the tendency for laziness. For a minute there I thought Taro's mother might be a bit of a nemesis, but I was thankfully corrected with the delightful ending.
dandelionfluff's review against another edition
2.0
It was a funny story, but I'm not sure how someone can be convinced that they're talking to a god when all they're looking at is a person with charcoal markings on their face in a priest's robe. Seemed to paint the man as none too bright, or too superstitious and without reason. Clever, though, how their house is fixed and Taro gets a job through his mother's own planning.
calistareads's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this story. It is an adapted Japanese folktale. A mother is raising a son who loves to sleep. He sleeps all the time. He is a trickster. He comes up with a plan to have a life so that he does not have to work. The whole town knows he is lazy and they call him the boy of the 3 year nap. His mother works very hard and barely has enough food.
There is much cunning in this story. The boy conjures a plan so that he will marry the most wealthiest man’s daughter and live a life of ease. His plan works, mostly. His mother also makes some plans of her own. The boy ends up marrying the wealthy daughter and they have a lovely home. The mother gets him a busy job at the merchants. The boy doesn’t want the job, but he and the girl find much happiness in life.
I think this is saying sometimes to get what you want in life, you have to figure out new ways of doing things and be a little sneaky. I think my nephew is a little sneaky and I think he will do well in this life. He does not sleep much though.
I love the artwork and the Japanese flavor that is brought through in the story.
The niece thought that this was a good story. She gave this 4 stars. The nephew really loved this story. He thought the boy was very smart. He gave this 5 stars. Look at that. There was only sort of a monster/goblin thing in it and that was a person and the nephew still enjoyed the story. Progress.
There is much cunning in this story. The boy conjures a plan so that he will marry the most wealthiest man’s daughter and live a life of ease. His plan works, mostly. His mother also makes some plans of her own. The boy ends up marrying the wealthy daughter and they have a lovely home. The mother gets him a busy job at the merchants. The boy doesn’t want the job, but he and the girl find much happiness in life.
I think this is saying sometimes to get what you want in life, you have to figure out new ways of doing things and be a little sneaky. I think my nephew is a little sneaky and I think he will do well in this life. He does not sleep much though.
I love the artwork and the Japanese flavor that is brought through in the story.
The niece thought that this was a good story. She gave this 4 stars. The nephew really loved this story. He thought the boy was very smart. He gave this 5 stars. Look at that. There was only sort of a monster/goblin thing in it and that was a person and the nephew still enjoyed the story. Progress.
lmurray74's review against another edition
4.0
I love Allen Say's illustrations and the story works well. The first time I read this I didn't really like it, but I read it again the other day and I liked it quite a bit more. It's a trickster tale, and that is executed as trickster tales are, but I think I prefer trickster tales that don't involve a woman marrying against her will. I know that is a mainstay of these type of stories, and I'd keep this in a classroom library but I wouldn't use it as a read-aloud.
kesterbird's review against another edition
3.0
So lemme get this right; impersonating a god in order to entrap a young lady in marriage is fine, but napping is a capitol offense?
luann's review
3.0
I immediately loved these illustrations! They pull you right into the Japanese setting. It seemed at first that Taro, a boy who is so lazy it was said he takes three-year naps, would somehow be rewarded for his laziness with his plan to trick his rich neighbor into letting him marry his daughter. While he doesn't exactly suffer any ill consequences, things don't go exactly as he had planned, which I liked. It just goes to show that a good mother will always be a great benefit to her children. This would be a fun one to share with my library classes sometime and see if they think the lazy boy got what he deserved. This won a Caldecott Honor in 1989.
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