There is no them; there is only us

Andrea Cheng

Honeysuckle House

Front Street, 2004

Sarah Wu's best friend, Victoria, has suddenly moved away, leaving Sarah sad and confused. Ting "Tina" Liang has left her relatives and familiar world of Shanghai to join her mother in Cincinnati. The two girls overcome a host of social pressures and cultural stereotypes to form a young friendship. Along the way, Andrea Cheng invites us into the emotional lives of families with marital tensions, work-life pressures, and sibling rivalry. Her style is never dramatic, always authentic, which seemed to me to open up a space (like the "honeysuckle house" where Sarah and her friends plunge into imaginative play) to forgive oneself and one's family and to make more generous and loving choices.

For more on Andrea Cheng, click here to visit the author's website.

Globalized

Carolyn Marsden
Silk Umbrellas
Candlewick, 2004

The effects of globalization, however vaunted by some policy-makers, seem to me not all that different from those of imperialism. We see the impact in Carolyn Marsden's story of Noi and her family. When local, agricultural land has been sold to real estate developers, Noi's father can no longer farm. He becomes a bricklayer, whose uncertain cash income must be supplemented by her mother's mosquito nets and her grandmother's painted umbrellas. When even that proves insufficient, Noi's older sister Ting is sent to do factory work. Ting solders a minute part into a radio, hour after hour, day after day. Noi is horrified and frightened...and motivated. With help and encouragement from her grandmother, Noi learns to paint umbrellas, continuing a family tradition. Marsden weaves Thai words and culture into a thoughtful and engaging story of a young girl growing up in a changing world.

Wake me when my dream comes true

Dianne Snyder (author)

Allen Say (illustrator)

The Boy of the Three-Year Nap

Houghton Mifflin, 1988

  Set in pre-modern Japan, Dianne Snyder’s story of Taro and his widowed mother reminds us that even the most cunning of children may nevertheless be outwitted by their more experienced mothers. Taro’s laziness has earned him the nickname, “The Boy of the Three-Year Nap.” At the end of her patience and her resources, his mother urges Taro to work for the merchant. But slothful Taro would rather undertake a life of leisure and toward that end he masquerades as the ujigama, the town’s god, to take advantage of the merchant. Frightened, the merchant obeys the ujigama’s order to marry his daughter to Taro. But when he comes to ask the widow’s consent, she finds a way to cure Taro of his laziness.

  In their style, clarity, and narrative humor, Allen Say’s illustrations remind one of Hokusai’s woodblock prints.

Hunter, Guardian

Mary Casanova (retelling)

Ed Young (illustrations)

The Hunter

Atheneum, 2004

  Hunter Hai Li Bu wants nothing more than to provide the people of his village—children, young women, and white-haired elders—with food. When drought comes, his skills become critical to the village’s survival. As he searches for game, he chances upon a snake one day and rescues it from the clutches of a crane. As reward for saving his daughter, the Dragon King offers Hai Li Bu anything he wishes from his immense treasures. The hunter wants only to improves his skills, and so the Dragon King gives his the gift of understanding what the animals say. The gift, in the form of a pearly stone, must not be revealed, however, lest Hai Li Bu be himself transformed into stone. His hunting improves and the village flourishes until Hai Li Bu hears from the animals of an imminent flood. His love for and loyalty to his village are put to a fateful test.

  Ed Young’s ink and color illustrations powerfully capture the deep emotions and high stakes of this folktale.

Silly wisdom

Demi

The Donkey and the Rock

Henry Holt, 1999

A fable set in pre-modern Tibet, The Donkey and the Rock features two poor men each eking out a living as best he can to support large households. When one man’s donkey crashes into the other man’s jar of oil set upon a rock, their lives come to a impasse. Unable to resolve the dispute, the seek the king’s good judgement. The king sees the goodness and honesty of both men, and he lays blame instead on the donkey and the rock. Driven by curiosity, the community attends the spectacular trial. But tables are turned as the wise king penalizes the people for their succumbing to their folly. Really, everyone knows “...there is no law by which to judge a donkey and a rock.” Ten coins was a small price for a valuable lesson.

   If you have seen Demi’s charming illustrations, you know that they generally fit obediently into their spaces. She breaks this pattern to dramatic effect:  when the donkey tips the jar of oil, it is as if Jackson Pollock’s paint-laden brush dripped in for a visit.

Don't forget to dance

Allen Say
Music for Alice
Houghton Mifflin, 2004

I can't help but hear that popular, nostalgic song by the Kinks, even though it's an odd juxtaposition to Allen Say's tribute to Alice Sumida. Alice and her husband, Mark, were to be interned along with all other Japanese-Americans during World War II, when an opportunity for farm work came along. They were prisoners, still, to the Oregon desert; but they survived and thrived. Say's bright image of their successful gladiola farm stays with us, just as it lingered in Alice's memory. As Alice reflects on her long life, she is a model of grace, dancing through her days.

A family trilogy

Allen Say

Tree of Cranes (Houghton Mifflin, 1991)

Grandfather's Journey (Houghton Mifflin, 1993)
Tea with Milk (Houghton Mifflin, 1999)


Some of us are set fast-forward to the future. Others of us wonder about the past. Where did our parents and grandparents come from, we ask. And we use the answers to understand who we are and where we are going. Allen Say shares his family's story in three beautifully illustrated and and somewhat wistful books.
  In Tree of Cranes, Say is a young boy in Japan. His mother, who grew up in the United States, celebrates his return to good health and commemorates her own childhood with a hybrid Christmas tree.
  Grandfather's Journey memorializes the life of Say's grandfather, who may seem acculturated and settled with his family in California, returns to Japan.
  Tea with Milk concerns Say's mother, who is wrenched from the comforts of California when her father brings the family back to Japan. She eventually meets a fellow with unconventional tastes that match her own.
  All of the books speak thoughtfully and gently about the un-ease of being caught between cultures, an increasingly common experience in our post-modern, globally connected world. Say's family seems to have pioneered this path, and he is generous to share its intimacies and beauty with us.