Say, Allen 1937-

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SAY, Allen 1937-

PERSONAL: Born August 28, 1937; son of Masako Moriwaki; married Deirdre Myles, April 18, 1974; children: Yuriko (daughter). Education: Studied at Aoyama Gakuin, Tokyo, Japan, three years, Chouinard Art Institute, one year, Los Angeles Art Center School, one year, University of California—Berkeley, two years, and San Francisco Art Institute, one year. Hobbies and other interests: Fly fishing.

ADDRESSES: Home—San Francisco, CA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Houghton Mifflin, 222 Berkeley St., Boston, MA 02116-3764.

CAREER: EIZO Press, Berkeley, CA, publisher, 1968; commercial photographer and illustrator, 1969–; writer. Exhibitions: Japanese American national Museum, Los Angeles, CA, retrospective, 2000.

AWARDS, HONORS: Awarded the American Library Association's Notable Book Award and Best Book for Young Adults Award, 1979, for The Ink-Keepers Apprentice; named to the Horn Book honor list, 1984, and Christopher Award, 1985, both for How My Parents Learned to Eat; Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, 1988, and Caldecott Honor Book, 1989, both for The Boy of the Three Year Nap; Caldecott Medal, American Library Association, 1994, for Grandfather's Journey.

WRITINGS:

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Dr. Smith's Safari, Harper (New York, NY), 1972.

Once under the Cherry Blossom Tree: An Old Japanese Tale, Harper (New York, NY), 1974.

The Feast of Lanterns, Harper (New York, NY), 1976.

The Ink-keeper's Apprentice (young adult), Harper (New York, NY), 1979.

The Bicycle Man, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1982.

A River Dream, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1988.

The Lost Lake, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1989.

El Chino, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1990.

Tree of Cranes, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1991.

Granfather's Journey, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1993.

Stranger in the Mirror, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1995.

Emma's Rug, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1996.

Allison, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1997.

Tea with Milk, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1999.

The Sign Painter, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2000.

Home of the Brave, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2002.

Music for Alice, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2004.

ILLUSTRATOR

The Dominican Brother, Province of the West, Dominican Vocation Office (Oakland, CA), 1965.

Brother Antoninus, A Canticle to the Waterbirds, EIZO Press (Berkeley, CA), 1968.

Wilson Pinney, editor, Two Ways of Seeing, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1971.

Eve Bunting, Magic and Night River, Harper (New York, NY), 1978.

Annetta Lawson, The Lucky Yak, Parnassus Press, 1980.

Thea Brow, The Secret Cross of Lorraine, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1981.

Ina R. Friedman, How My Parents Learned to Eat, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1984.

Dianne Snyder, The Boy of the Three Year Nap, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1988.

SIDELIGHTS: Allen Say's artwork has illustrated both his own award-winning children's books and the work of other authors. In his own fiction and nonfiction, Say has frequently examined the immigrant experience in the United States. Born in Japan to a Korean father and a Japanese-American mother, Say had an unusual childhood. His parents divorced when he was twelve, and he was sent to live with his grandmother in Tokyo. He did not get along with her at all, and before long she had taken the unusual step of securing him his own apartment. Thus, he was living on his own from an early age, and he spent much of his time drawing and reading. Looking for someone to act as a father figure to him, he sought out Noro Shinpei, a well-known Japanese cartoonist. Shinpei became a lifelong mentor to Say, who later used these years as the basis for his book The Ink-keeper's Apprentice. When Say was sixteen years old, he left for the United States, where he attended a military high school. World War II was not long over, and Say felt the unpleasantness of anti-Japanese prejudice. He returned to Japan after graduating, but felt out of place there too, and eventually returned to the United States. While in Los Angeles, he dated a Jewish woman, whose father was horrified by their alliance, but nonetheless forced them to elope by threatening Say with a pistol. The marriage did not last, though the couple did have one daughter, Yuriko.

Art had always been Say's great love, but he gave up drawing and painting in order to pursue a more lucrative career in commercial photography. For many years he worked as one of the top photographers on the West Coast. He eventually began dabbling in illustration again, doing the artwork for other peoples' books and working on some text of his own. He published his self-illustrated story Dr. Smith's Safari in 1972, and by 1979 he was awarded the American Library Association's Notable Book Award and Best Book for Young Adults Award for The Ink-Keeper's Apprentice. The Bicycle Man, published in 1982, is one of his most successful books; it tells the story of two American soldiers who befriended a group of Japanese children following World War II. Despite the success of his work, Say was rather discouraged and considered returning to his career in photography. His feelings were transformed after he illustrated The Boy of the Three-Year Nap by Dianne Snyder. This very successful book earned the illustrator his first Caldecott Honor award and convinced him that he was following the right path in life.

Say won another Caldecott Award for Grandfather's Journey, a book based on his grandfather's life in Japan and America. "Say's illustrations celebrate both the beauty of Japan and the richness and vastness of the American landscape as the story moves between the two countries. The pictures' varied styles show the influence of very different artists, from Claude Monet to Georgia O'Keeffe, Andrew Wyeth to Ansel Adams," reported a writer for the St. James Guide to Children's Writers. Nancy Vasilakis, a reviewer for Horn Book, claimed that "the immigrant experience has rarely been so poignantly evoked as it is in this direct, lyrical narrative that is able to stir emotions through the sheer simplicity of its telling."

Say tells two very different stories of children in Emma's Rug and Allison. In Emma's Rug, the little girl Emma has a beloved rug that has been her comfort object since babyhood. As an older child, it helps to inspire her creative efforts. When her mother washes the old rug, Emma "explodes in a picture of violent anguish: hair streaming, fingers clutching, mouth shrieking," reported Hazel Rochman in Booklist. Emma's recovery from her trauma is unusual, and Say treats his character with "respect," wrote Rochman. "Every outsider will feel her lonely concentration and her strength." A Publishers Weekly writer also praised the book as "an impressive creation, to be appreciated on many levels." Allison is "a sober story," and a "contrast to the fancy of … Emma's Rug," noted Roger Sutton in Horn Book. Allison is an adopted Asian American child who feels anger when she realizes that she is not the natural offspring of her parents. The narrative follows her eventual resolution of her feelings. "Say captures every nuance in poignant, exquisite paintings, taking great care not to overdramatize or embellish," found Susan Dove Lempke in Booklist. The reviewer for Publishers Weekly called Allison "a subtle, sensitive probing of interracial adoption," and concluded: "This exquisitely illustrated story will encourage thoughtful adult-child dialogue."

Say takes on the subject of Japanese-American interment camps that were established during World War II in his book Home of the Brave. With illustrations that seem to be from the "realm of dream or rather, nightmare," as a Publishers Weekly writer put it, Say shows bleak images of children imprisoned in camps, located on Indian reservations. Discussing the book with a Publishers Weekly interviewer, Say remarked, "I'm a war child, so I saw the war through a child's eyes. Home of the Brave is an indictment against the world—I suppose, the adult world. It's always the children who suffer the most. When I was a child, I wanted to grow up instantly, so I could fight back." He concluded: "It's probably the most politically charged book I've done, but I didn't mean it to come out that way. I like to think it's coming from a primordial place." Summarizing Say's contribution to literature, the essayist for the St. James Guide to Children's Writers maintained: "Whatever Say's conscious intent in producing his books, they nevertheless entertain and touch children and adults alike. Evocative illustrations and gentle, understated prose let the characters' emotions shine through, startling the reader into new awareness."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Notable Asian Americans, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1995.

St. James Guide to Children's Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July, 1993, Hazel Rochman, review of Grandfather's Journey, p. 1974; October 1, 1993, Hazel Rochman, interview with Allen Say, p. 350; October 1, 1995, Hazel Rochman, review of Stranger in the Mirror, p. 320; October 1, 1996, Hazel Rochman, review of Emma's Rug, p. 359; December 15, 1997, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Allison, p. 693; March 15, 1999, Hazel Rochman, review of Tea with Milk, p. 1327; October 1, 2000, Hazel Rochman, review of The Sign Painter, p. 341; February 15, 2002, Hazel Rochman, review of Home of the Brave, p. 1015; February 1, 2004, Hazel Rochman, review of Music for Alice, p. 977.

Book Report, May-June, 1995, Arne Handley, review of The Inn-Keeper's Apprentice, p. 42.

Honolulu Advertiser, June 8, 2003, Jolie Jean Cotton, "Drawing on Childhood Tribulations," p. D1.

Horn Book, September-October, 1993, Nancy Vasilakis, review of Grandfather's Journey, p. 590; July-August, 1994, Yuriko Say, "My Father," p. 432; September-October, 1996, Maria B. Slavadore, review of Emma's Rug, p. 586; January-February, 1998, Roger Sutton, review of Allison, p. 69; July, 1999, review of Tea with Milk, p. 458; September, 2000, review of The Sign Painter, p. 555; May-June, 2004, Barbara Bader, review of Music for Alice, p. 321.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2004, review of Music for Alice, p. 229.

Los Angeles Times, April 21, 2002, Steve Wasserman, "Three Questions for Allen Say," p. R11.

New York Times Book Review, May 5, 1974; October 24, 1982; November 14, 1993, Kyoko Mori, review of Grandfather's Journey, p. 21; April 13, 1997, Constance Decker Thompson, review of Emma's Rug, p. 27; May 16, 1999, Margaret Moorman, review of Tea with Milk, p. 20; March 11, 2001, review of The Sign Painter, p. 26; May 19, 2002, Jose Padua, review of The Dispossessed, p. 32.

Parenting, October, 1993, Leonard S. Marcus, review of Grandfather's Story, p. 149.

Publishers Weekly, August 23, 1993, review of Grandfather's Journey, p. 70; September 11, 1995, review of Stranger in the Mirror, p. 84; September 9, 1996, review of Emma's Rug, p. 82; August 4, 1997, review of Allison, p. 74; March 8, 1999, review of Tea with Milk, p. 67; November 1, 1999, review of Tea with Milk, p. 57; September 18, 2000, review of The Sign Painter, p. 110; February 25, 2002, review of Home of the Brave, p. 64, interview with Allen Say, p. 65; January 26, 2004, review of Music for Alice, p. 252.

Reading Teacher, January, 1994, interview with Allen Say, p. 304.

San Francisco Chronicle, January 18, 1998, Patricia Abe, review of Allison, p. 10; May 30, 1999, Kimberly Chun, review of Tea with Milk, p. 5.

School Library Journal, September, 1993, Kate McClelland, review of Grandfather's Journey, p. 245; October, 1995, Wendy Lukehart, review of Stranger in the Mirror, p. 117; September, 1996, Patricia Lothrop Green, review of Emma's Rug, p. 190; October, 1997, Wendy Lukehart, review of Allison, p. 109; May, 1999, Ellen Fader, review of Tea with Milk, p. 96; September, 2000, Rosalyn Pierini, review of The Sign Painter, p. 208; March, 2002, Marianne Saccardi, review of Home of the Brave, p. 238; April, 2003, Diane S. Marton, review of Grandfather's Journey, p. 104; April, 2004, Heidi Piehler, review of Music for Alice, p. 123.

USA Today, November, 2000, "The Gentle Art of Allen Say," p. 44.

Washington Post Book World, May 19, 1974; May 4, 1975.