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Saturday, February 7, 2015

Module 3: Grandfather's Journal

 
Say, A. (1993). Grandfather's journey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Summary: The author recounts his grandfather’s travels through the depiction of striking portraits of the people and landscapes in the United States and Japan. It details his grandfather’s ties to both lands,a relationship maintained throughout the generations.
Response: I was taken aback by the beauty of the illustrations and fell immediately in love with this book. It felt as if I were looking through a photo album of colorized black and white photos. Each picture and each sentence felt so clear as if I could jump into that life at any moment. While each sentence was simple, the pictures and the words left room for my mind to connect the pieces between each life event. The illustrative quality brings to life the lives of people we otherwise would not know through the loving eyes of the grandson.
Reviews:
Grandfather's Journey
[*] Allen Say, Author-Illustrator
32 pp. Houghton 10/93 ISBN 0-395-57035-2 15.95
Returning to the picture-book biography format that worked so well in El Chino (Houghton), Allen Say tells the story of his own grandfather's travels throughout North America as a young man. Awed by sweeping deserts, oceans, and prairies, bewildered and excited by huge cities, and inspired by the racial diversity of the people he meets, he eventually goes back to Japan to marry his childhood sweetheart and bring her to the "New World." They settle in California and raise a daughter, but, unable to forget his homeland, he returns to Japan with his family when his child is nearly grown. It is there that the author himself is born, and although his grandfather speaks nostalgically of seeing California one more time, war interrupts. "Bombs fell from the sky and scattered our lives like leaves in a storm," writes Say. It remained for him to pursue his grandfather's dream. The author now lives in California, where he has raised his own family, returning to his native land from time to time. "The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other. I think I know my grandfather now." The immigrant experience has rarely been so poignantly evoked as it is in this direct, lyrical narrative that is able to stir emotions through the sheer simplicity of its telling. The soft-toned watercolors have the feel of a family album. The illustrations sometimes resemble old-fashioned photographs depicting stiffly posed figures in formal dress and sometimes look like more modern informal snapshots. These are interspersed with panoramic landscapes of the Japanese countryside or the North American continent. They seem to be moments taken from a life, intensely personal and at the same time giving voice to and confirming an experience shared by countless others.
By Nancy Vasilakis
[*] indicates a book that the majority of reviewers believe to be an outstanding example of its genre, of books of this particular publishing season, or of the author's body of work.
Vasilakis, N. (1993). Grandfather's Journey. Horn Book Magazine, 69(5), 590.
SAY, Allen.
Grandfather's Journey.
illus. by author. Houghton. 1993.
K-Gr 4 -In this fictionalized account, Say describes his grandfather's love for his native land and the lure of life in America, feelings the author experienced firsthand when he emigrated from Japan to the United States. In so doing, he sums up the quintessential immigrant experience, "the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other." Carefully composed, exquisite watercolors, resembling photographs in an album, match the quiet restraint and elegance of the text.
Compiled By Diane S. Marton
Marton, D. S. (2003). Grandfather's Journey (Book). School Library Journal, 49(4), 104.
Library Programs: Have children think of their own family and what they know of their family history. Provide paper, pencils and colors to allow them to create their own photo or photos that would tell a story of something particular about their family.
 
 

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