Grandfather's Journey

Grandfather's Journey

Author	Allen Say
Illustrator	Allen Say
Country	United States
Genre	Children's picture book
Publisher	Houghton Mifflin
Publication date	1993
Pages	32
ISBN	978-0-395-57035-7
OCLC	27810899
Dewey Decimal	[E] 20
LC Class	PZ7.S2744 Gr 1993

Grandfather's Journey is a book by Allen Say. Released by Houghton Mifflin, it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1994.^[1] The story is based on Say's grandfather's voyage from Japan to the United States and back again.

Plot

A young man from Japan, during the Meiji era, crosses the Pacific Ocean and explores the United States. He finds that of all the places he has seen, he likes coastal California best because of the beautiful Sierra Mountains. Eventually, he returns home to Japan and marries his childhood sweetheart.

The young man takes his new bride across the sea and they settle in California, where they have a daughter. As he watches his daughter grow up, the man is filled with nostalgia for his own childhood. He eventually decides to take his family back to Japan when his daughter is nearly grown up.

The man is happy to see his old friends again, but moves from the village where he grew up to a city nearby in order to satisfy his daughter, who has spent her entire life living in a city. She eventually marries and has a son, who is the narrator of the story. The man, now the titular grandfather of the story, finds that once again he misses California.

He plans a trip to see his adopted country again with his grandson, but never gets a chance to see California again as a result of World War II. His grandson eventually grows up and follows the same journey as his grandfather, understanding his grandfather's feelings towards two places he called home.

References

1. American Library Association: Caldecott Medal Winners, 1938 - Present. URL accessed 27 May 2009.