This is the delicious story of a little woman in Old Japan who liked to make dumplings out of rice and also liked to laugh, "Tee-he-he-he." One day, a dumpling rolled through a hold and when the woman tried to catch it, she found herself on a very strange road under the earth.

There, the majestic statues of the gods tried to hide her from the wicked oni. But she just couldn't help laughing—and giving herself away.

What happened and how the oni had the last laugh—unfortunately for them—makes a tale for retelling and for relooking at Blair Lent's luminous picture, in which every detail is exquisitely imagined to create a wonderfully satisfying world. And of course a tale for laughing, "Tee-he-he-he."

From the dust jacket