REVIEW OF GRANDFATHER’S JOURNEY
A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Say,
Allen. 1993. GRANDFATHER’S JOURNEY. New York,
NY: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0395570352.
B. PLOT
SUMMARY
The author’s grandfather set out from Japan as a young man to see the world. In
American, he liked California best. He returned to Japan and married his
childhood sweetheart. They moved to San Francisco Bay in California and had a
daughter. After a number of years, he moved back to Japan with his wife and
daughter. The daughter ended up marrying a local Japanese man. As a young boy,
the author often visited his grandfather. When the author was nearly grown, he
went to California.
C.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS)
This picture book is an autobiographical story of Allen Say’s family history on
his mother’s side of the family. This book also qualifies as historical
nonfiction.
The title
page shows an origami ship. The ship represents the ships that Allen Say’s
grandfather used as he journeyed across the ocean from Japan to American, and
eventually back to Japan. Origami is the Japanese traditional art of
paper-folding. Origami is many centuries old.
The
beginning of the story shows the grandfather wearing traditional Japanese
clothing of the period; and, on the next page, he is shown wearing traditional
western-style clothing of the period.
One of the
pages in the book shows the grandfather standing in front of a train. The
author/illustrator, Allen Say, took particular care in rendering this image of
a historically accurate train. It appears to be a Shay steam train # 5. These
trains were in operation in California in the 1930’s when Allen Say’s
grandfather would have been there. The author/illustrator meticulously
recreated what the steam locomotive would have looked like. The train on the
page represents one that would have been manufactured by Lima Locomotive Works
in Lima, Ohio. The name of the manufacturer would have been stamped on the
builder’s plate seen on front right-side of the engine.
In the
same picture, with the train, Allen Say’s grandfather is wearing a “boater.” It
was a common summer hat of the era in America. Being made of straw, it allowed
easy ventilation and was worn primarily in the late spring to early fall.
Throughout the book, the grandfather is frequently seen wearing a tie. This was
standard dress for men of the period in the west, notably the United States.
On the
following page the grandfather appears to be visiting Utah, specifically the
area that would become Arches National Park. At the time when he was there it
was known as Arches National Monument. The multiculturalism and diversity of
America is shown on the page where the grandfather “… shook hands with black
men and white men, with yellow men and red men.”
After the
grandfather returns to Japan, the picture showing him with his old friends has
everyone wearing traditional Japanese clothing, including kimonos and obi
sashes. The next page shows the grandfather’s daughter dressed in western-style
clothing. In the background is an older Japanese woman wearing a traditional
kimono and obi sash. The picture captures the juxtaposition between people of
the same culture transitioning from the past to the present.
The following
page shows the grandfather’s daughter (the author’s mother) and her husband.
Here there is another dichotomous image. The wife is dressed in a traditional
Japanese kimono with an obi sash. She is also holding a traditional Japanese
foldable fan. The husband is dressed in formal western-style clothing. There is
another image of a generation-related difference in clothing shown when the
author is visiting his grandfather at his home. The grandfather is wearing
traditional Japanese clothing. The author is wearing western-style clothing.
The differences extend to the footwear. The author is wearing Mary Jane type
shoes for little boys. The author’s grandfather is wearing Japanese traditional
“geta” sandals.
The next
page shows the grandfather in a contemplative mood. The author/illustrator has
done an excellent job of showing how thoughtful the grandfather is in that
moment. Sitting beside him on the floor is a traditional Japanese matcha tea
set. The scene is set with the distinctive green color of the ground matcha tea
inside the “chawan” (matcha tea bowl/cup) on the wooden floor next to a small
teapot.
The following
page describes the time when Japan was being bombed by the Allied forces at the
end of World War II. The author’s grandfather’s home was on the island of
Honshu. It was one of the first of the Japanese islands to be bombed in 1942.
In 1945, by the time the last bomb was dropped on the island of Honshu, there
was nothing left of Grandfather’s home.
D.
AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPTS
Caldecott Medal Winner (1994)
Kirkus: “The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am
homesick for the other," observes Say near the end of this poignant
account of three generations of his family's moves between Japan and the US.
Say's grandfather came here as a young man, married, and lived in San Francisco
until his daughter was "nearly grown" before returning to Japan; his
treasured plan to visit the US once again was delayed, forever as it turned
out, by WW II. Say's American-born mother married in Japan (cf. Tree of Cranes,
1991), while he, born in Yokohama, came here at 16. In lucid, graceful
language, he chronicles these passages, reflecting his love of both
countries—plus the expatriate's ever-present longing for home—in both simple
text and exquisitely composed watercolors: scenes of his grandfather
discovering his new country and returning with new appreciation to the old, and
pensive portraits recalling family photos, including two evoking the war and
its aftermath. Lovely, quiet—with a tenderness
and warmth new to this fine illustrator's work.”
Booklist: Starred Review - “Say’s stunning immigration
story is a version of the American dream that includes adventure and discovery
but no sense of arrival… The journey isn’t a straight line, but more like a series
of widening circles, full of surprising twists and loops. As in the best
children’s books, the plain, understated words have the intensity of poetry.
The watercolor paintings frame so much story and emotion that they break your
heart. Looking at the people in this book is like turning the pages of a family
photo album, the formal arrangements and stiff poses show love and distance,
longing and mystery, beneath such elemental rites as marriage, leaving, and
return. The story starts off as cheery adventure. Say’s grandfather leaves
Japan as a young man on an astonishing journey to the New World. He explores
all kinds of places and meets all kinds of people and never thinks of returning
home. The huge cities “bewildered yet excited him.” He settles in California
because he loves the light and the mountains and the lonely seacoast. He
marries his childhood sweetheart from his village in Japan and brings her to
the new country, and they have a child. But then as his daughter grows up (we
see her posing stiffly with a blonde doll in a carriage), he begins to think
about his own childhood and longs to go back. The village is as he remembered
it, and he laughs with his old friends. But his American daughter doesn’t fit
in the traditional culture. She’s an outsider in the Japanese village in her
Western hat and purse, as awkward as her father was when he first left home.
They move to a city in Japan; she marries, and her son, Allen Say, is born. His
grandfather tells him many stories about California and longs to see it again.
But the war comes, described through the child’s eyes (“Bombs fell from the sky
and scattered our lives like leaves in a storm”): a single painting shows a
group of refugees in a leveled city. Grandfather dies without seeing California
again. But when his boy is nearly grown, he leaves home and goes to see the
place his grandfather had told him about, and he stays in the U.S. and has a
daughter, just as his grandfather did. But he says, “I can not still the
longing in my heart.” Like his grandfather, he has to return to Japan now and
then. And as soon as he is in one country, “he is homesick for the other.” The
landscapes evoke a variety of styles: from the mountain photography of Ansel
Adams to the Japanese pastoral and the romantic French impressionists. The
cover picture of the young traveler in his first too-large European clothes,
clutching his bowler hat, has the sturdiness and poignancy of Chaplin. Allen
Say has traveled and found riches everywhere. He captures what the Jewish
American writer Irving Howe calls an “eager restlessness.” The book is a
natural companion to Say’s other autobiographical picture book, Tree
of Cranes (1991), about his childhood in Japan and his
mother remembering her childhood Christmas in California. Both are books to
share across generations and in oral history projects with older students.
Every child who’s pored over strange old family pictures or heard stories of
“back home” will relate to this, whether home was across the border or far
across the sea or a midwestern farm. The story has special immediacy for
immigrants, like me. It’s also about all those who long for where they came
from, even while they know they can’t go home again.”
E. CONNECTIONS
This story is about the immigration of a Japanese person to America.
Other historical picture books about the
Japanese-American experience include:
Takei, George. MY LOST FREEDOM. ISBN 978-0593566350.
Lee-Tai, Amy. A PLACE WHERE SUNFLOWERS GROW. ISBN 978-0892392742.
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