PB Grandfather's Journey

Allen Say's Grandfather's Journey won the Caldecott Medal in 1994.  I love this book particularly because I identify with the grandfather who, by book's end, always feels homesick for somewhere.  When he is in the United States, he misses Japan.  When he is in Japan, he misses the United States.  I really get that.  After spending much of my adult life moving, I have found that sounds, smells and images can often make me "homesick" for somewhere else I have been.  When I'm in Rhode Island, I miss the mountains.  But, when I've lived in the mountains, I missed the ocean.  When I lived in England, I missed the United States, but watching the Olympic coverage makes me long for England.  Whispering pine trees and rainbows transport me to Germany, an extremely hot day makes me long for the cooling water of Barton Springs in Austin, and a perfectly ripe peach takes me to Georgia.  Yup, I "get" what grandfather is saying.  

I can see using this book as a way of beginning a discussion of immigration even though grandfather is not what we think of when we think of the typical immigrant to the United States.  In the first pages of the story, students would have to infer that grandfather is quite wealthy, and this is something that I would use as a topic of discussion.  He doesn't really come to the United States as the "tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to be free" that we think of when we think of immigration at the turn of the twentieth century. He comes as a tourist who settles.  How would that change his perception of America?  How many first generation American immigrants would produce a book that is such a lovely tribute to the beauty of a bygone American era?  No tenement buildings here.    

Take What You Can Carry--graphic novel

The graphic novel Take What You Can Carry by Kevin C. Pyle is another parallel plot story where the author brings together two stories that seem to be unrelated at the beginning.  The first story, told in silent sepia, begins right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor sets in motion the internment of Japanese-Americans.  This is always a poignant story, one that too few Americans are aware of.   I've written about some non-fiction curriculum links in another post on Weedflower, so I won't repeat that information.

Graphics from Macmillan Publishing website

The alternating text is set in suburban Chicago in 1978...the blue and white illustrations remind me of the '70's...not a monochromatic era, but one in which the colors seem to be bland when viewed in retrospect.  I guess I've been looking at too many photos from my childhood lately.  I realize that colors have faded in the last forty years, but I do remember those awful olive green and cream colored appliances very well!  So, the color resonates with me, but Kyle's part of the story does not.  I do like how the writer connects Kyle's story to Ken's.  I love how two people from very different cultures and generations come to some understanding of one another's position.  I particularly like one aspect of Kyle's character that comes into play in the story (I don't want to give too much away), but I don't really like Kyle.  I don't really see his motivation for acting like a jerk especially when he could have allied himself with a more sensible friend.

The story of the Japanese-Americans does not get much play in the curriculum.  Most teachers, and I think rightly so, will present the Holocaust literature instead.   However, I think that Take What You Can Carry might be able to introduce a generation to this piece of American history.  It could easily be added reading to a World War II literature unit or read in comparison/contrast to a Holocaust story.  Because it is so short (I was done in about 45 minutes, and I believe there was a catnap in there as well), it is not a book that will take a lot of reading time, but it will introduce the topic well.  One thing that I would say to potential readers, if you don't know much about the Japanese internment, it would be wise to read the historical notes on the last pages.  This information will provide the reader with the context to understand the "silent film."  I would recommend this book to students grade 7 or 8 and above.

Japanese-American Internment

Cynthia Kadohata wrote Weedflower to honor her father's experiences in the Poston, Arizona internment camp during World War II.  While most middle school students know about the Holocaust, very few know about the infringements on civil rights that occurred right here in the United States.  Most, if not all, of the Japanese living on the West Coast were moved to camps in places like Manzanar or Poston.  Those Japanese who immigrated to the United States were often held in higher security facilities than those who were second or third generation.
     In the novel Sumiko is a young girl farming with her family in California when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor.  Sumiko is separated from her grandfather and sent with the rest of her family to Poston.  The conflict in the novel is created partially by the fact that Poston is run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs since it is part of the Hopi reservation.  While this novel paints an interesting portrait of the era, it is not a story that moves along quickly as the plot is a little thin.  Sumiko learns to make friends in the novel and to come to terms with the events that have challenged her family, but these events are not enough to entice me to give this book my highest recommendation.

Butte Camp looking to the Southwest--National Archives

I liked the book; I found its portrayal of the discrimination faced by the Japanese during the war to be sad and, of course, unfair.  However, as my kids say not a lot of "action."  Still, it would be interesting to read this book or a similar one and compare it to the more recent Patriot Act passed after 9/11 when Americans seemed more than wiling to let the government compromise their civil rights in exchange for a greater sense of security.


The National Archives photos of the War Relocation Camps in Arizona provide a nice primary resource to act as a supplement to reading the novel.  The Library of Congress also has a Japanese American Internment lesson plan including oral histories and photographs.  Some of the photos are by famous photographers Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams.