Picture Book #5 - Caldecott Medal

Title:  Grandfather's Journey
Author:  Allen Say
Illustrator:  Allen Say
Genre:  Fiction
Subgenre:  Early Reader Multicultural Realistic Fiction
Themes: family oriented, relationship with your grandfather, tourism, Japanese traditions, voyages, being homesick, impact of a war
Primary and Secondary Characters: grandfather, grandmother, grandfather's daughter (the young woman), the young woman's husband, the young woman and her husband's son, people of the village
Awards:  1994 Caldecott Medal Winner
Date of Publication: 1993
Publishing Company:  Houghton Mifflin Company

Summary:
This adventurous story unfolds the life a boy's grandfather who is from Japan.  His grandfather wanted to travel the world and went many places.  Such places as Europe, North America, deserts, endless farm fields, mountains, industrial cities, and traveled to his favorite place, San Francisco, California.  His grandfather eventually became homesick and went back to Japan.  After getting married, his grandfather and his bride moved to San Francisco and had a baby girl.  But in San Francisco his grandfather became homesick again and they returned back to Japan.  Once being back in Japan, grandfather's daughter met and married a man from a city near their village.  She then bore a son who became close with his grandfather.  His grandfather told him many stories about his travels as a young man and exclusively told him about San Francisco, California and how he planned on going back one day.  After the impact of war that broke out in Japan, grandfather wasn't able to travel back to California.  Sadly, grandfather never saw California again.  As the young boy grew, he found himself leaving his village in Japan and moved to San Francisco, California.  But being there, the boy come to know the homesickness that his grandfather had told him of.  Funny how they were both able to feel the same emotions!
How it will be used in the classroom:
This is a great book for grades 3-5 since there are many activities that the students could engage in from this book.  This book is a great example of showing diversity and they could write their own story as an immigrant or could even learn about Japan and its history.  Although this is an easy read, the thought process of comprehending this story is aimed more for third and fifth grade classrooms.  The students might be able to relate to this story as many students are coming from different parts of the world.