Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say
Goofy is fun. Goofy is great. But seems to me that sometimes you just gotta slow everything down and do a picture book that’s a little more serious. We had to go meaningful this week and what could be more meaningful than a little drop of Allen Say?. That doesn’t mean we don’t have time to also talk about a yard full of 12-foot-skeletons, of course. We contain multitudes.
Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, or your preferred method of podcast selection.
Show Notes:
You can read my 100 Picture Books for Kids Poll write-up of this title (at #46) here.
A straightforward explanation of where this book came from.
Each of these illustrations is like a gorgeous portrait in and of itself. As Kate points out, “It’s clear why it won the gold.”
Peaky Blinders, sez Kate. I’ll take her word for it.
By the way, I know that Christina’s World is by Wyeth. Please do not kill me.
Love the shadows on his face here. What’s so interesting about this part is that looking at it you’d assume that the text would say something about the horrors of industrialization. What it actually says is, “Huge cities of factories and tall buildings bewildered and yet excited him.”
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For the record, Allan Say as a child ran into Lois Lowry though they never exchanged a word. It was only years later that they discovered that they’d seen one another all those years ago.
Here’s Halfway Home by Christine Inzer. Love that book! If you need a comic about feeling torn between Japan and America, this is ideal. Bonus: Actually made by a teenager (and check out that well-deserved Jeff Smith blurb!).
Kate Recommends: The hard seltzer Press
Betsy Recommends: An episode of the podcast 99% Invisible about Octagon Houses.
Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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I just read Cynthia Kadohata’s A Place to Belong, which is the fictionalized account of Japanese-Americans interned during WWII who then chose to renounce their American citizenship and return to Japan, a place their children had never seen. They then changed their minds and sued for their citizenship. Very interesting, and a piece of history I did not know about.
Oh wow. I haven’t thought about that book in years. I remember it was a real Newbery contender the year it came out. And yes, it wasn’t a story I’d heard of either. Good remembering!
I knew that line about the red and yellow people was going to raise eyebrows. The kids are horrified when I read it. But I explain that’s how people talked then, when his grandfather was a young man, and that doesn’t make it right. I think it’s important not to whitewash (pun intended!) history.
Undoubtedly the argument not to change the text in later editions.
Ok, just got to the end of your podcast. You didn’t like it?!?
I LOVE the spare language.
When I read it to kids at school (4th-5th grade) they adore it. I’d give it a 9.
Oh, I didn’t dislike it. I just didn’t feel an emotional connection. I like it on a very aesthetic level, because it’s beautiful. Very glad to hear the kids love it!