From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. With luminous watercolors and economical text, Caldecott Medalist Say (
Grandfather's Journey) tells of an American girl whose ingenuous hopes of reaching old Japan are finally realized. The narrative starts off highly truncated: a single page is devoted to Erika's childhood fascination with a serene print of a Japanese teahouse in her grandmother's house; the next compresses middle school and... high school and all the way through college, after which she heads to Japan to teach. The pace changes, becoming almost folkloric as Say presents the country through Erika's eyes. Unable to remember her Japanese, she sees Tokyo as a hundred cities all crammed together and knows that she will not find her house there. After moving to and rejecting a second location (it's picture-pretty, but too noisy), she lands in the right spot. Say sprinkles Japanese words and definitions smoothly into the story as Erika surprises a male colleague (and readers) with the thoroughness with which she pursues her dream. Although the plot may prove slow going for many in the target audience, aficionados of Say's tranquil work will find both the message and the delivery deeply satisfying. Ages 5–8.
(Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Grade 3–5—Say's exquisite paintings provide backdrop for a charming fairy tale with a contemporary, feminist twist. Here, it is a girl (read "princess") whose quest to find her heart's desire is at the core of the story. As a child, Erika becomes entranced with a painting on her grandmother's wall, depicting a small rustic house in Japan. Determined to find it, she prepares (in true fairy-tale fashion) for her journey, learning about the country and studying the language. Following college, she begins her search, and accepts a teaching assignment in Japan. Once there, it takes the proverbial three challenges before she finds success. Tokyo is too large, another (unnamed) city is too noisy, but in the third place—a small rural island community—Erika finds the house of her dreams, a welcoming class of children, and a "prince" named Aki to share her life. The house in the painting, she discovers, is a teahouse, where one day, kimono-clad, she happily performs a formal tea ceremony for Aki. Say's soft-colored paintings, detailed but not busy, contain just the right amount of nuance to build the story. He nicely contrasts the busyness of the cities with the verdant landscapes of the country, casting a happy-ever-after glow to the tale. More romantic and idealistic than many of Say's stories,
Erika-San will find readers beyond the usual picture-book crowd.—
Barbara Elleman, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
