Book Review for TEA WITH MILK by Allen Say

Book Review by Allie Davis
MLIS 5653 Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Say, Allen. 2009. Tea with Milk. Saint Louis, MO: Turtleback Books. ISBN  0606106944 

Connect with the Author 
http://biography.jrank.org/pages/1687/Say-Allen-1937.html

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
     In Allen Say's  Tea with Milk, the main character, Masako, or May, is a Japanese-American girl who lives in San Francisco with her immigrant parents who are from Japan.  Early on in this short children's story, we see the balance of May's world.  At home, she is Japanese; at school and with her friends, she is a typical American girl who eats pancakes and drinks tea with milk and sugar.  She has dreams of going to college and getting an apartment, but her dreams are put on hold when her parents become homesick and move back to Japan.  The author does an excellent job of comparing and contrasting May's two worlds, describing both her world in Japan where she is expected to be a proper Japanese girl who marries a proper husband who has been arranged for her and also the world she dreams about where she drives a car and speaks proper English with others.  Mr. Say adequately portrays the hardships she faces for being a "foreigner" in her mother country.  The other students make fun of her, and she never feels like she fits in.  Yet, the readers are not really led to feel sorry for May.  Rather, readers sense immediately that she is not going to be the typical Japanese daughter.  So a burning question develops within pages of the story's beginning.  What is Masako going to do? 
     The novel's setting begins in San Francisco where May has been her whole life.  Not much of this life is presented except to show that she loves the modern city life.  Once the family moves back to Japan, everything changes.  We see her culture presented in more depth.  She takes lessons in flower arranging, calligraphy, and the tea ceremony.  Her parents higher a matchmaker to find her a rich husband.  However, none of this suits May, and she takes matters into her own hands.  She wants to live on her own like an American daughter, so she "runs away" to Osaka to live on her own.  
       Culture is clearly evident when May reaches Osaka.  She takes a job in a department store after applying for the position using the calligraphy she had learned in school.  Her parents are not happy because it was "shameful for ladies to work" (20).  Inadvertantly, when May translates for some English-speaking customers, she is given the position as the store's guide for foreign business men; however, she has to wear the normal Japanese Kimono.  She thinks it is funny that "she had to look like a Japanese lady to speak English" (24).  Her new position becomes especially critical to the plot of the story when she meets a young man named Joseph.  They end up regularly drinking tea with milk and sugar together, eventually learning that happiness is being together, the main theme of the story.  
       Overall, I love this theme of the short story.  May never feels completely happy in Japan because of her American birth.  She dreams of going back to San Francisco and living the city life.  She wants noise and freedom that is offered to women in America.  She does not feel like she fits in with the Japanese lifestyle, yet she remains true to herself despite being made fun of and despite disappointing her parents.  It isn't until the end of the book that May realizes that "home isn't a place or a building that's ready-made and waiting for you, in America or anywhere else" (30). Joseph helps her understand that "home" is what she really wants, and it doesn't matter which country.  

AWARDS  

• School Library Journal Book of the Year (Won Award in 1999)
• Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year (Won Award in 1999)
• American Library Association Notable Books for Children (Won Award in 2000)

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

• Booklist, "...Masako becomes a foreigner in her parents' country, longing for home in San Francisco. Instead of college, she has to go back to high school to learn Japanese. She must learn to be a "proper" Japanese lady. Say's watercolors are quieter in line and color this time, and the text is much longer. Together, they tell an elemental story that will appeal to everyone who feels a stranger at home. ..." (C) March 15, 1999.
• School Library Journal, "...May, as she prefers to be called, who, after graduating from high school in California, unwillingly moves with her parents to their native Japan. She is homesick for her native country and misses American food. She rebels against her parents, who force her to repeat high school so that she can learn "her own language"; the other students tease her for being "gaijin" or a foreigner. Masako leaves home and obtains a job in a department store in Osaka, a city that reminds her of her beloved San Francisco. Her knowledge of English quickly makes her a valued employee and brings her into contact with her future husband, Joseph, a Japanese man who was educated at an English boarding school in Shanghai. They decide that together they can make a life anywhere, and choose to remain in Japan...." (C) May 1, 1999
• Horn Book Guide, "Continuing to explore place and home, Say tells the story of his mother, first introduced to readers in Tree of Cranes. Born in California to Japanese immigrants, Masako is miserable when she moves to Japan with her parents after high school. The illustrations capture Masako's unhappiness and also her eventual contentment as she learns to combine two cultures." (C) September 1, 1999.

CONNECTIONS

Use as an introduction to art/paintbrushes, love stories, kimonos, history, Japanese Americans/Japan, Asia, biography, and Autobiography.

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/tea-with-milk-by-allen-say/
https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=6629
https://betterlesson.com/community/document/2306591/tea-with-milk-docx
http://web.archive.org/web/20040206023019/http://www.eduplace.com/tview/pages/t/Tea_with_Milk_Allen_Say.html

Gather more Allan Say titles to read such as:
·       The Inker's Shadow. ISBN  0545437768

·       Grandfather's Journey. ISBN 0547076800
·       Silent Days, Silent Dreams. ISBN: 0545927617 

Gather other ALA Notable Books for Children titles to read such as:
·       Fogliano, Julie. Old Dog Baby Baby. ISBN  1596438533
·       Pizzoli, Greg. Good Night Owl. ISBN 1484712757
·       Watts, Jen. A Piece of Home. ISBN  0763669717