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K-Gr 3 In old Japan, a clever, frail peasant boy training for the priesthood cannot resist drawing cats on every available surface. When his exasperated teacher sends him away, he takes shelter in an abandoned temple late at night, not knowing that a murderous goblin haunts the place. After drawing cats all over the dusty walls, the boy crawls inside a small cabinet to sleep. Terrible noises disturb him during the night. When morning comes, he finds an enormous rat lying dead on the floor, and fresh blood on the mou...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Drawing on a legend concerning a fifteenth-century artist, as retold by Lafcadio Hearn in his 1918 Japanese Fairy Tales, Hodges tells a pleasing tale of a boy artist so skilled that his creations spring to life to confound a supernatural antagonist. Too slight to do well as a farmer, the boy is training as a priest until his kindly mentor recognizes the lad's true vocation (as exhibited by his c...Log In or Sign Up to Read More