Tea With Milk

By Allen Say. At home in San Francisco, May speaks Japanese and the family eats rice and miso soup and drinks green tea. When she visits her friends’ homes, she eats fried chicken and spaghetti. May plans someday to go to college and live in an apartment of her own. But when her family moves back to Japan, she soon feels lost and homesick for America. In Japan everyone calls her by her Japanese name, Masako. She has to wear kimonos and sit on the floor. Poor May is sure that she will never feel at home in this country. Eventually May is expected to marry and a matchmaker is hired. Outraged at the thought, May sets out to find her own way in the big city of Osaka. With elegant watercolors echoing the award-winning Grandfather’s Journey, Allen Say has created a moving tribute to his mother and her path to discovering where home really is. This is the third book in his poignant trilogy of stories based on his childhood. Paper: 32 pp.