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Grandfather's Journey | 
 enlarge | Author: Allen Say
Publisher: Sandpiper
Category: Book
Buy New: $7.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  42 reviews
Sales Rank: 1125829
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 32
ISBN: 0547141785
EAN: 9780547141787
ASIN: 0547141785
Publication Date: October 27, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
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Amazon.com Review
Home becomes elusive in this story about immigration and acculturation, pieced together through old pictures and salvaged family tales. Both the narrator and his grandfather long to return to Japan, but when they do, they feel anonymous and confused: "The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other." Allen Say's prose is succinct and controlled, to the effect of surprise when monumental events are scaled down to a few words: "The young woman fell in love, married, and sometime later I was born." The book also has large, formal paintings in delicate, faded colors that portray a cherished and well-preserved family album. The book, for audiences ages 4 to 8, won the 1994 Caldecott Medal.
Product Description
Through compelling reminiscences of his grandfather's life in America and Japan, Allen Say gives us a poignant acount of a family's unique cross-cultural experience. He warmly conveys his own love for his two countries, and the strong and constant desire to be in both places at once. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 37 more reviews...
 Lovely October 7, 2008
This is a story that focuses on the dual love that people can have for places. Here, that case is between Japan and California. It's a simple, sweet, and poignant story about generations, their differences, and love for home.
 Grandfather's Journey April 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book that is based on Say's grandfathers voyage from Japan to the United States and back again was released my Houghton Mifflin and is the recipient of the Caldecott Medal in 1994.The setting of the book shifts from a rural Japanese village in the early part of the twentieth century through parts of the United States and back to the cities and villages of Japan. Say has written and illustrated this book that tells the tale of a young man from Japan that sails across the Pacific Ocean to explore the United States. After traveling through the country he is drawn to the coastal shores of California with its strong sunlight and the Sierra Mountains. Shortly after, he returns to his Japanese village to marry his childhood sweetheart and brings her to his new land.
He settles in San Francisco and they have a baby girl. He never forgot his own childhood in Japan and his old friends and became nostalgic about his own rivers and mountains. When the daughter was grown he could wait no more and they returned to his homeland. The father spent many happy times as his found the rivers and mountains as he had left them. He was able to exchange stories and memories with old friends. The daughter was not happy in this small village and so the father bought a house in a large city nearby where soon the daughter fell in love and married and some time later had a son of her own.
This young boy is the author of the book and recounts how he loved to spend time with his grandfather and hear stories of California. The grandfather could not forget the mountain of California and soon became anxious to return but war broke out. After the war there was little of the city left so the grandfather traveled back to the village of his childhood. He longed to see California but never got the chance.
As the boy grew he went to see the California his grandfather had so loved. He came to love the land just as his grandfather did and found that he shared the feelings of his grandfather in that when he was in one land he longed to be in another. Feeling homesick for Japan while in California, he often visits the land of his ancestors to see the mountains and rivers of his childhood. The text in this book parallels the life of Say's grandfather with respect to the journey that brought Say and his family to live in the United States.
Wonderful and heartwarming book! August 16, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What a beautiful book. The illustrations are magnificent and the story itself is amazing. It brought a tear to my eye as I remembered my Nonno.
Grandfather's Journey March 14, 2007
This book is a deserving winner of the Caldecott. I was often offended by books that portrayed immigrants as one dimensional in that they were always so glad to arrive in America and never appeared to have feelings for their native country. As an immigrant I know that relocation in America, while often a blessing, comes at a price. Grandfather's Journey is a beautiful book that depicts the struggle of being pulled by love of new and old homelands.
Great Selection! September 2, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The cover illustration is what initially drew me to this book; watching a young man stand on the deck of a steamship while the wind and waves thrash about. The color of the sea beckoned me to turn the pages and find out more about where this man was going and whether or not he would get there.
Grandfather is a young immigrant traveling from Japan to his new home in America. He journeys all across this land and experiences all aspects of it: cities, farms, mountains, rivers, people, etc. He settles in California but eventually misses his homeland, and travels back to satisfy his longings. Through a series of events, he is unable to make his way back to the West Coast that he loves so much.
My husband and I were in the Navy and lived among people from all over the world. I loved getting to know them and experiencing their ways of life. Understanding how other people around the world think and love and live, has made me a more complete person. It has made me who I am today. In this way I connect with Grandfather and his journeys.
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