Review by New York Times Review
WHAT formative experiences make a great children's book illustrator? In the case of Allen Say and Ed Young, both Caldecott medalists, the journey begins with unusual childhoods in wartime Asia. Connecting the dots from those beginnings to what would become long and successful careers, "Drawing From Memory," by Say, and "The House Baba Built," by Young, both picture books, portray the authors and artists as not-yet men. Allen Say, author of "Grandfather's Journey," which won the Caldecott in 1994, is known for his watercolor paintings; among Say's many books, only one, "The Ink-Keeper's Apprentice," forgoes artwork, even as it tells the story of his early artistic training. With "Drawing From Memory," Say reworks that unillustrated autobiographical middle-grade novel into a transporting hybrid of picture book and graphic memoir. In doing so, he shows just how evocative illustration can be in conveying a life to young readers. "Drawing From Memory" begins in prewar Yokohama, Japan, where the precocious Say decides early on to become a cartoonist: "When I was drawing, I was happy. I didn't need toys or friends or parents." Yet he quickly learns to hide his art, particularly from his mostly absent and disapproving father. Soon, he is forced to flee. bomb-ridden Yokohama for the countryside. By the end of World War II, he says, "everything was broken," including Say's scattered family. Following an unusual deal with his grandmother - he gets an apartment in exchange for gaining admission to a prestigious Tokyo middle school - Say moves into a room of his own just before his 13th birthday, determined to become an artist. Inspired by a newspaper article about a boy who walked 350 miles to apprentice himself to the renowned cartoonist Noro Shinpei, Say likewise walks through the famous artist's studio door. He re-emerges with a sensei - a master instructor - and a new name, Kiyoi, a mispronunciation of his pre-Westernized surname, Sei-I. Say's training with Noro-Sensei, whom Say lovingly refers to as his "spiritual father," lasts for several years, until Say emigrates to the United States. This memoir allows Say to acknowledge, six decades later, his lifelong bond to his teacher. "The House Baba Built," illustrated by Ed Young with text as told to Libby Koponen, opens with another unconventional real estate exchange. With war approaching 1930s Shanghai, Young's engineer father, Baba, strikes an agreement with a wealthy landowner in an attempt to shelter his family in the city's safest neighborhood. He will design and build a big house with courtyards, gardens and a swimming pool, which he must then give to the landowner after his own family has lived there for 20 years. The sprawling, three-story complex becomes a magical playground for Young and his four siblings and, soon, a safe haven for relatives and friends. With vibrant collages comprised of drawings, cutouts and manipulated photographs, Young, who won the Caldecott Medal in 1990 for "Lon Po Po," dreamily reconstructs his childhood. The fall of Nanjing, the arrival of a German refugee family and other wartime events figure in the background, but, Young says, "I knew nothing could happen to us within those walls." "The House Baba Built" is as intricately constructed as his father's house, with pages that extend and open to reveal additional detail and memories. The first such spread depicts an overview of Baba's house, an oasis surrounded by a bustling Shanghai cityscape, its citizens dwarfed by the house's epic proportions. The final two facing-spreads, hidden behind a useful time line and author's note, open to simplified architectural line drawings of the house's interior, populated by cutouts of the family and friends who made Baba's house so welcoming. Both books describe how family can guide artists in their early years. In Say's case, it was a chosen family; for Young, the extended family into which he was born. In "Drawing From Memory," Say, who outwardly faced greater adversity, reveals winking secrets to longtime readers about the ways his youth informed his later work: how he immortalized his mother's uncle as the curmudgeonly protagonist in "Once Under the Cherry Blossom Tree" (1974) and threw tiles from the same roof that appears on the cover of "The Ink-Keeper's Apprentice." He also shows how he channeled the cartoon ego his sensei created of him, decades later, in "The Sign Painter" (2000). All this is revealed through comics, line drawing, watercolor and half-century-old photographs, a combination that highlights Say's range and depth as both an illustrator and storyteller. Meanwhile, Young, whose childhood self was largely cocooned, uses a mix of media to depict disquieting reminders of things past: flocks of hovering crows, fading pictures, dark silhouettes and nameless faces as viewed from the safe haven within. As if intended to be paired, the titles of these two remarkable books prove complementary: "Drawing From Memory the House Baba Built." In both artists' lives, art provides a refuge. Terry Hong writes Smithsom'an Book-Dragon, a book review blog for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [November 13, 2011]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Say, a Caldecott Medal-winning picture-book creator, returns to his most fertile ground true life to tell the story of how he became an artist. He began living alone when he was 12, paying a little attention to schoolwork and a lot of attention to drawing, a pursuit that flourished under the mentorship of his favorite cartoonist, Noro Shinpei. His narrative is fascinating, winding through formative early-teen experiences in Japan as he honed his skills and opened his eyes to the greater world around him. This heavily illustrated autobiography features Say's characteristically strong artwork. The visually stunning sequences include a standout scene in which the young artist and a friend stumble upon a massive demonstration, which is depicted as a huge crowd of people that snakes down one page and is stopped short by a brick wall of police on the next. The scrapbook format features photographs, many of them dim with age; sketchbook drawings; and unordered, comic-book-style panels that float around wide swathes of text and unboxed captions, and the overall effect is sometimes disjointed. Still, as a portrait of a young artist, this is a powerful title that is both culturally and personally resonant.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Retooling some of the material in his autobiographical middle-grade novel The Ink-Keeper's Apprentice (1994), Say tells the story of his decidedly nontraditional Japanese upbringing, supplying watercolors, photographs, and humorous sketches to create a vivid record of life in postwar Tokyo. Say's family rented him his own apartment when he was 12 so he could attend a better school. "The one-room apartment was for me to study in," he writes, beneath a b&w sketch of his desk, "but studying was far from my mind... this was going to be my art studio!" (A second drawing, in color, shows his conception of the perfect desk, covered with paints and brushes.) Japan's most famous cartoonist, Noro Shinpei, accepted Say as an apprentice until Say immigrated to the United States in 1953. Say's account of his relationship with Noro (who later called Say "the treasure of my life") is the centerpiece of the narrative. As the story of a young artist's coming of age, Say's account is complex, poignant, and unfailingly honest. Say's fans-and those who also feel the pull of the artist's life-will be captivated. Ages 10-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-This "journey through memories" uses a scrapbook format featuring the author's photographs, sketches, drawings, and comic-style panels. Say shares his love of comics and the important influence they have in his art. The book is a poignant tribute to his mentor, Japanese cartoonist Noro Shinpei. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
This rendering of Say's adolescence--a coming-of-age story within the context of a long life and vocation--takes the form of an album, with text, photographs, drawings, and paintings. At the center of the book is Say's relationship with Noro Shinpei, a popular cartoonist who took Say on as an apprentice at thirteen. Throughout the volume, content is reinforced through canny artistic choices and harmonious design. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Exquisite drawings, paintings, comics and photographs balance each other perfectly as they illustrate Say's childhood path to becoming an artist.Although its story overlaps with The Ink-Keeper's Apprentice (1979), this visual chronicle is a fresh new wonder. It opens with a soft watercolor map of Japan on the left, framed in a rectangle, while on the right is a delicate, full-bleed watercolor of Yokohama's seashore and fishing village, with two black-and-white photographs pasted on: Say as a child, and the stone beach wall. The early arc takes readers from Say's 1937 birth, through family moves to escape 1941 bombings and then Say's nigh-emancipation at age 12, when his mother supported him in his own Tokyo apartment. The one-room apartment "was for me to study in, but studying was far from my mind... this was going to be my art studio!" The art table's drawer handle resembles a smile. Happily apprenticing with famous cartoonist Noro Shinpei, Say works dedicatedly on comic panels, still-lifes and life drawing. Nothingnot political unrest, not U.S. occupation, not paternal disapprovalderails his singular goal of becoming a cartoonist. Shinpei's original comics are reproduced here, harmonizing with Say's own art from that time and the graphic-novelstyle panels, drawings and paintings created for this book.Aesthetically superb; this will fascinate comics readers and budding artists while creating new Say fans. (author's note) (Graphic memoir. 10 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
