The last of Dr. Karen Adams book reviews to air on Children’s Books…the Deans List, beginning on April 22nd.

Dr. Karen Adams was the Dean of the College of Education and Human Services at Central Michigan until her death early in April and a regular contributor to our weekly series of children’s books reviews, the Dean’s List.  On behalf of CMU Public Broadcasting, we are grateful for her participation in the series.  She will be sadly missed.

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DR. SUE  ANN  MARTIN
Sue Ann Martin, the founding and past Dean of the School of Communication and Fine Arts at Central Michigan University, first became interested in children’s literature when she wrote her Ph.D thesis on the oral characteristics of the Caldecott Award-winning children’s books. Her Ph.D is in Speech and Interpretation with a cognate in Early Childhood Education. She went on to review children’s books for The Detroit Free Press, write three popular resource books for teachers regarding children’s books and the creative process and reviewed newly- published books for Arts Almanac Specials. Her 2002 children’s books special for CMU Public Radio won a Merit Award in Special Interest Programming  from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters. QUOTE: Reading books aloud to young children is one of the most satisfying ways to introduce them to the beautiful sounds and lilts of the language, to the wonders of  the world, to the excitement of suspense and to the pleasure of concentration while at the same time bonding with the child in a genuine, long lasting way. My mother did the same with me as she read hours and hours of Robert Louis Stevenson poems from his ‘A Child’s Garden of Verses’ to me when I was a child.

The Boy of the Three-Year Nap, written by Dianne Snyder, and delightfully illustrated by Allen Say, is a wonderful “trickster” tale set in Japan.  Taro lives with his poor mother who works sewing kimonos for wealthy women.  But he, alas, is “as lazy as a rich man’s cat.”  It is even “said that if no one woke him, Taro would sleep three years at a stretch”—thus the book’s title, The Boy of the Three-Year Nap.  The most effort Taro expends is sneaking away to observe with envy the fine life of their wealthy neighbor, a rice merchant, with a twenty-room mansion and a pond filled with golden carp.

In the pattern of “trickster tales,” Taro plots to wed the merchant’s daughter, thus ensuring a life of luxury for himself without work.  His plan seemingly succeeds, until his mother, an even more clever trickster, adds her own twist to the tale, ensuring for herself the same life of luxury and for Taro a full time job—to his great surprise and distress.

The Boy of the Three-Year Nap ends with Taro’s marriage, which turns out to be a “happy one,” and shows him as a father enjoying his young child.  The reader is told that “if he is not the busiest man in town, neither is he the laziest.”  Young children aged five through eight will enjoy this clever story of several simultaneous tricky plot lines worked out smoothly and successfully.  And Allen Say’s colorful, award-winning illustrations for The Boy of the Three-Year Nap will add to the enjoyment of young listeners as they examine the beautiful designs on the kimonos Taro’s mother sews, the patterns of Taro’s coverlet, the details of roof tiles, sliding doors and windows, and the beauty of the wealthy merchant’s garden and pond.  

Dianne Snyder. The Boy of the Three-Year Nap. Illus. Allen Say.  Boston:  Houghton Mifflin Company, 1988.

Discussion Questions for The Boy of the Three-Year Nap

THE HOUSE IN THE NIGHT written by Susan Marie Swanson and illustrated by Beth Krommes is a comforting tale for young children about home, assurance, bedtime and love. This 2009 Caldecott Award winner is beautifully illustrated in black and white with magical details brimming over in gold. Among these items are a key, lamp, a book, a bird, the stars, the setting sun and the moon.  Built on the cozy pattern of the cumulative tale, this picture book features a small girl who goes to her bedroom, reads a book and takes a ride on a bird pictured in that book. Powered by the bird’s song she soars out the window of her bedroom into the night, over her house, over her town and through the sky. She then returns to her very own bedroom by retracing her path back from the starry night to the house, the book, and the bed where she is shown all tucked in and fast asleep where she has been all the time. The rhythm of the text with its “ sun in the moon, moon in the dark, dark in the song and song in the bird” motif is very attractive to children and a staple of the world of the nursery rhyme.  The author says she was influenced by such poems as “This is the key to the Kingdom” where the story puts forth the pattern that in that kingdom is a city and in that city is a town and in that town is a street and so on.  What is so refreshing with Susan Marie Swanson’s text is the wonderful role the little girl’s imagination plays in the action. It is a highly satisfying and comforting bedtime story.

Artist Beth Krommes has created the pictures by scratching out white-lined images on black scratchboard, making a copy of the resulting picture and then applying watercolor on that picture. Painting the key elements in a rich golden color allow for the items to stand out from the black and white illustrations as guideposts of the story line.  This is another way the book reassures.

THE HOUSE IN THE NIGHT written by Susan Marie Swanson and illustrated by Beth Krommes is ideal for children ages 2-5 ( Houghton Mifflin, 2008).

Discussion Questions for The House in the Night