Grandfather's Journey

Say, Allen. (1993). Grandfather's journey. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Grandfather's Journey is a book about a young Japanese man and his journeys to and from America. The book is written with moderately simplistic language; the wording describes the event and the event only, there is not additional wording to help the reader visualize his journeys. The illustrations in the book are so realistic that it is almost as if the author purposefully used little language to describe the places because he did not want to take away from the illustrations of the story.

Grandfather's Journey is a story told in first person; the author tells you about his grandfather's journey and uses pronouns such as I, my, and mine. I think that the point of view of the story really adds to it, it seems as though the emphasis is on the illustrations and simply the grandfather's love for the places he visited and his home in Japan. The author only told the reader what he was told and did not add any thoughts or dialogue that his grandfather may have said; the emphasis was on the places he visited and his love and adding dialogue and thoughts could have distracted the reader from this. I think that the story would have been different if it had been told in a different point of view and could have potentially taken away from the meaning and the illustrations.

The illustrations are paintings that are incredibly realistic and keep the reader's attention. The pictures of people look as though they are a painting of an actual photograph, and the illustrations of the places visited are eye-catching with the colors and layout that is used on each page. On page 8 when Say's grandfather visits the deserts and canyons I found myself wanting to stay on that page and keep looking at the illustrations; it was so warm feeling with the way that the sun seems to be setting in the canyons and the colors that are used to portray this. The composition of the pages is something that adds to the attention drawn to the illustrations; the main image that the author wants you to pay attention always seems to be in the center of the page. On pages 4 and 5 the grandfather is the emphasis so he is in the center of the page, yet on page 7 where the transportation that the grandfather used is the main thing talked about, the steam engine is the largest image in the picture that draws your attention.

Big Question: Is there anywhere in the world that you would like to visit? Why?