Module 2: Grandfather's Journey

Yes, it's true: I loved the Caldecott unit. So much so that I needed to write about one more book I really liked before the week ended!

Summary. A young man from Japan decides to seek adventure in a new land, and sets out for the United States. He travels via ship, train, foot, and riverboat. The landscapes and people fascinate him. He settles near San Francisco, marries, and together they raise a daughter. As time passes, the man yearns to see his homeland again. He and his family return to Japan, and see the places and people he remembers from his youth. The daughter marries, and raises her son in Japan. War comes, and their home in Japan is devastated. The grandfather and his family move back to the village where he grew up, and he speaks glowingly of California where he once lived. Though he never returns, his grandson does visit America. And he stays to raise his family, with occasional visits to Japan. His parting remark is, "...the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other."

Citation. Say, Allen. Grandfather's Journey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1993. Print.

My Impressions. This beautifully illustrated book is a must for all those who love to travel and have left one place to seek adventure elsewhere. The people, the landscapes, the feeling of a real family history are lovingly portrayed and very believable. One of my favorite illlustrations depicts the California coastline I know and love well. As the story moves along, we get to know the grandfather, who loves his homeland and his adopted country equally. How difficult it must have been for him during World War II, a small but essential part of the story. Grandfather's love of songbirds and his penchant for raising them seems a thread that ties the disparate pieces of his life together. This and other details bring the grandfather alive, and help us to care about him and his family.

Library Uses. This book would be a good discussion starter for a program on world cultures or travel. It could also be used by students researching their own family tree and used as a jumping off-point for discussion about geneaology study.

Awards. Caldecott Medal winner, 1994. Bulletin Blue Ribbon, ALA Notable Book, Booklist Editors' Choice, Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, Horn Book Fanfare Selection, School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year.
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Reviews. (School Library Journal) Review of DVD version. Gr 1-4-Allen Say's beautifully written Caldecott Award-winning memoir of his grandfather's life (Houghton Mifflin, 1993) is treated with care in this expressive production. His grandfather traveled as a young man, finding beauty wherever he went and eventually settled in California. His love for Japan, however, soon called him to return to the land of his birth. Yet, through war and change, a part of him still loved California. The author chronicles the birth of his mother and of himself. California is now his home but, like his grandfather, he feels the tug of his Japanese heritage as well. This lovely circular story about family and tradition embraces the concept of home in a way that many immigrants will understand. The poignant story is nicely narrated by B. D. Wong. The original music by Ernest V. Troost begins with a Japanese flavor, but adopts a slightly more Western tone as the story progresses, beautifully complementing the text. Say's lovely watercolor illustrations, created like a family album, are scanned iconographically creating a feeling of movement. The production concludes with a 2008 interview with the author where viewers can learn more about his life as well as how the book was created. The CD contains the sound track from the DVD. This is an exceptional program that calls to the heart.-Teresa Bateman, Brigadoon Elementary School, Federal Way, WA Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. (April 1, 2009.)

(Publisher's Weekly) Say transcends the achievements of his Tree of Cranes and A River Dream with this breathtaking picture book, at once a very personal tribute to his grandfather and a distillation of universally shared emotions. Elegantly honed text accompanies large, formally composed paintings to convey Say's family history; the sepia tones and delicately faded colors of the art suggest a much-cherished and carefully preserved family album. A portrait of Say's grandfather opens the book, showing him in traditional Japanese dress, ``a young man when he left his home in Japan and went to see the world.'' Crossing the Pacific on a steamship, he arrives in North America and explores the land by train, by riverboat and on foot. One especially arresting, light-washed painting presents Grandfather in shirtsleeves, vest and tie, holding his suit jacket under his arm as he gazes over a prairie: ``The endless farm fields reminded him of the ocean he had crossed.'' Grandfather discovers that ``the more he traveled, the more he longed to see new places,'' but he nevertheless returns home to marry his childhood sweetheart. He brings her to California, where their daughter is born, but her youth reminds him inexorably of his own, and when she is nearly grown, he takes the family back to Japan. The restlessness endures: the daughter cannot be at home in a Japanese village; he himself cannot forget California. Although war shatters Grandfather's hopes to revisit his second land, years later Say repeats the journey: ``I came to love the land my grandfather had loved, and I stayed on and on until I had a daughter of my own.'' The internal struggle of his grandfather also continues within Say, who writes that he, too, misses the places of his childhood and periodically returns to them. The tranquility of the art and the powerfully controlled prose underscore the profundity of Say's themes, investing the final line with an abiding, aching pathos: ``The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other.'' Ages 4-8. (August 16, 1993)