Scan barcode
A review by litwitchcore
Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say
4.0
Grandfather’s Journey is a picture book that acts as an illustrated “photo album” of photoreal images telling the story of the author’s (Allen’s Say) grandfather, who came from Japan to explore America. This journey includes seeing the natural beauty and man-made wonders of the U.S., meeting people of different races and backgrounds, meeting his wife, and having a child. The book takes an interesting thematic twist after this, changing from a typical immigrant story to his grandfather missing his home country, and returning. While he loves his home, he begins to miss America again, emphasizing a common feeling immigrants may feel of loving and missing whichever country they aren’t currently in, feeling stretched and yearning between the two.
This book was fantastic and interesting, and definitely a good one for learning about immigrant experiences. I wouldn’t use this for elementary honestly, as I feel it’s not colorful enough to engage them at that level, but definitely for history or ELA classes discussing immigrant experiences. I would use this as a class read-aloud, then have some thinking questions that students write on, for example:
What stories have you heard about your grandparents' youth?
What types of journeys were really happening in the book?
How were the grandfather and grandson connected?
Do you know people who have immigrated from other countries to the U.S.? What positive and negative experiences did they describe?
This book was fantastic and interesting, and definitely a good one for learning about immigrant experiences. I wouldn’t use this for elementary honestly, as I feel it’s not colorful enough to engage them at that level, but definitely for history or ELA classes discussing immigrant experiences. I would use this as a class read-aloud, then have some thinking questions that students write on, for example:
What stories have you heard about your grandparents' youth?
What types of journeys were really happening in the book?
How were the grandfather and grandson connected?
Do you know people who have immigrated from other countries to the U.S.? What positive and negative experiences did they describe?