TEA WITH MILK by Allen Say

Bibliography
Say, Allen. 1999. Tea with Milk. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0395904951

Plot Summary
A young Japanese American woman has to move to Japan with her parents after graduating from high school. She misses her old home while trying to adjust to the Japanese culture. Independence is found when she takes a job in Osaka.

Critical Analysis
Tea with Milk is the story of the author’s mother, May, and how she came to meet his father, Joseph. It chronicles the adjustment May had to make as a young woman when she had to move from the San Francisco area all the way to Japan, the home of May’s parents. This picture book shows the struggle between being American and of the Japanese culture, and this struggle is depicted clearly in the text as well as illustrations.

The illustrations clearly show May’s unhappy emotions of feeling like a foreigner in her parents’ home country. May is shown as being lonely at her school in Japan or sad when wearing a kimono. The illustrations show just how different American clothes for women are compared to the Japanese way of dressing. Cultural differences are also indicated in the text. May loves milk in her tea, but the Japanese drink plain green tea. Masako is May’s given name and is what her parents and those in Japan call her. She misses being called May, which is what she was always called in America. Lucky for May, she meets Joseph. Like May, Joseph is of Japanese heritage, but Japan is foreign to him as well. His parents are English, and he likes milk and sugar in his tea.

The illustrations and text also show the varying ways of living in Japan. The town where May’s parents return to is very traditional. Women are expected to marry and wear kimonos. The houses have paper windows. However, the city of Osaka is a noisy and bustling city with lots of cars and tall buildings with glass windows. Osaka feels like America to May.

I think this is a sweet story. However, although it is a picture book, it may not interest preschoolers. The meaning of the story may be difficult for them to understand. Elementary students will appreciate the message that one can make a home and find happiness anywhere. At some time and place in all of our lives, we have all experienced the uneasiness of feeling like an outsider. I like how this theme is told with a simple story about the author’s mother and father.

Awards Won & Review Excerpts

• Best Children's Books of the Year, 2000; Bank Street College of Education
• Notable Children's Books, 2000; ALSC American Library Association
• Smithsonian Magazine's Notable Books for Children, 1999
• Booklist: "Both an 'ugly duckling' romance and a universal story of leaving home, this is a picture book that will have intense appeal for older readers."
• Kirkus Reviews: "In describing how his parents met, Say continues to explore the ways that differing cultures can harmonize . . ."
• The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books: "Say has a gift for descriptive prose that effectively communicates the emotional nuances of his family stories; that gift lifts his stories above nostalgia and invites young listeners and readers to an understanding of the passage of time, the impact of distance."

Connections

• Other books by Allen Say:

          The Boy in the Garden. ISBN 9780547214108
          Kamishibai Man. ISBN 9780618479542
          Music for Alice. ISBN 0618311181

• Find out more about Allen Say on the Reading Rockets website: http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/say/.

• Other Japanese fiction books:

          Meehan, Kierin. Hannah's Winter. ISBN 1933605987
          Preus, Margi. Heart of a Samurai: Based on the True Story of Nakahama 
          Manjiro. ISBN 9780810989818
          Uehashi, Nahoko. Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit. ISBN 9780545005425