“The Boy of the Three-Year Nap” is the story of a Widow and her son living on the Nagara River. The son is extremely lazy and is always sleeping, and the folks around the village even started calling him “The boy of the three-year nap.” One day the boy comes up with a plan to get a wife, and he dresses like a goblin, and scares a wealthy man into giving him his daughter’s hand in marriage. By the end of the book, the lazy boy Taro and his mother have tricked the wealthy merchant into fixing up their house and getting Taro a job, as well as his daughter’s hand in marriage. In the end, the boy has a job and is no longer lazy. He lives happily with his new wife and their child. With the class you could discuss a lot of the cultural similarities and differences. For example, in the story, the girl has no say in whether or not she wants to marry Taro; it is completely out of her hands. You could ask the students what they think about that, and try and explain that some places live by very different ways than we do. This is a great book to explore multicultural relationships, and it is full of beautiful illustrations. Great for a multicultural lesson!
