Book summary

A picture-book retelling of a Japanese folktale. When a cruel village master decrees that anyone over age 70 is useless and must die, all the elderly of the village are taken up to a mountain and left to perish. A young farmer realizes that his beloved mother will soon be 70 and so builds a secret room for her in his house to hide her from the village master. Two years later a nearby town threatens to conquer the village unless the village master can perform three seemingly impossible tasks. No one knows how these tasks can be accomplished except for the farmer's mother. Will her wisdom make it safe for her to come out of hiding? Colorful ink illustrations accompany the text.