26 Jan / Erika-san by Allen Say [in Bloomsbury Review]
The prolific, Caldecott Medal-winning Allen Say debuts his latest picture book, as gorgeous as all the others. As a child, Erika falls in love with Japan through a framed picture her grandfather bought as a young man. “I want to go there when I grow up,” she announces to her grandmother of the small cottage in the picture. She never forgets her promise to herself. She studies Japanese all the way through college, gets herself a teaching job in Japan, and lands eventually on a small remote island. She meets and befriends a fellow teacher, relishes her new life, and comes to realize that she is “home at last.”
Readers: Children
Published: 2009