Say, Allen, and Egolf, Robert L. Grandfather's journey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993. ISBN:
Author Website: http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/authors/allensay/
Media: Watercolor on paper
Award: Bulletin Blue Ribbon,
Caldecott Medal Book,
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.
Use of Simile: (p. 8) “Deserts with rocks like enormous sculptures.” (p. 11) “towering mountain and rivers as clear as the sky.” (p. 26) “Bombs fell from the sky and scattered our lives like leaves in a storm.”
Use of Personification: (p. 14) “the lonely seacoast.”
Detailed Artwork Discussion: Say is a gifted artist who uses watercolor in a way that is often evocative of the richness of oils. The illustrations in Grandfather’s Journey have a depth that is particularly impactful in Say’s drawings of the landscapes of his native Japan and his travels in the United States. Say paints the California coastline where the Sierra Mountains meet the sea using a dark brown color for the foremost land and utilizing a faint, gray with purple undertones for the most distant mountains (p. 14). Details show the mountains varying from rocky soil to sheer facing (p. 14). When Say’s grandfather visits an industrial city, the artwork tells the story: this city is polluted and gray with smoke and dirt (p. 10). The following page’s illustrations are a stark contrast; the sky above a mountain range is a watery, clean blue (p. 11). Another illustration shows a group of children in the aftermath of a bombing. The expressions on the children’s faces convey devastation and grief in a way that precludes the need for text (p. 27). Say’s art tells much of the story in Grandfather’s Journey as Say uses color ranging from light sepia watercolors to rich, earthy colors and painterly qualities ranging from barely there to painstakingly detailed.
Special Notations: 2009 Students’ List, Detailed Artwork Discussion
Annotation: Author Illustrator Allen Say writes about his grandfather’s travels from Japan to the United States. Say’s grandfather eventually yearns for his homeland and returns, but then finds that he misses aspects of his life in California.
Personal Reaction: I was struck by the spare text in contrast to the depth of Say’s story. With very few words, Say shares a circular story of a fictional version of his grandfather and himself and their yearning for their homeland and adopted countries two generations apart. Say tackles the loneliness of immigration, the awe of travel and the strong pulls of family and culture, as well as the devastation of war in this short picture book. Say’s illustrations are vital to the storyline. Say draws himself as a young boy holding a rifle during the outbreak of war (p. 26) and that is all the reader needs to infer the events of this time period. At another point in the story, Say uses brief and accessible language to share life-changing events. “The he brought his bride to the new country,” (p. 15) lets the reader know that grandfather has married and made the decision to live in the United States. Grandfather’s Journey is a wonderful example of how a picture book with meaningful illustrations and carefully chosen text can tell a big story with a limited number of pages.
