Tea With Milk

Say, Allen. 1999. Tea With Milk. New York: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-90495-1.

I love the saturated colors and the open space in Allen Say's artwork. They're very different from the more common brights, pastels, and crowded pages of many children's books. Say's books give me the feeling that I'm looking into an old picture album. That's the perfect impression to have when reading Tea With Milk.

Tea With Milk is the story of how Say's mother and father met. It's also the story of Say's mother's decision not to follow the Japanese tradition of marriage arranged through a matchmaker, but to get a job and live on her own, more like the young women she knew when her family lived in California. Together, Say's parents make choices - and ultimately, make a home - by realizing that it's up to them to decide how to incorporate the culture they know into their lives.

In some ways, this book could come across as stereotypical. Knowing English is the way Say's mother gets a better job, and following American customs, not traditional Japanese ones, brings the couple together. But the story isn't a one-sided pro-American one. The western business suits and skyscrapers in Osaka, where Say's mother gets a job, point to the fact that japanese culture isn't locked into some mythical past, but grows and changes like any other. And when any culture changes, people change with it.

The point of Tea With Milk isn't to bash tradition. It's both respectful and hopeful - for Say, a look at his own past, and for the reader, a look into what life was like in the changing times of this particular time and place.

I would display this book with other true stories of author's families in earlier times, like Tomie De Paola's 26 Fairmont Avenue books.

Publisher's Weekly says, "Through choice words and scrupulously choreographed paintings, Say's story communicates both the heart's yearning for individuality and freedom and how love and friendship can bridge cultural chasms."

Publisher's Weekly. Qtd in Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Tea-Milk-Allen-Say/dp/0395904951/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-5676480-3776938?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185071948&sr=1-1.