Bibliographic data
Say, Allen. Tea with Milk. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
Brief plot summary
May’s parents speak Japanese and eat Japanese food at home, while May eats American food and prefers to speak English. Her parents get homesick so they decide to move the family back to Japan. May struggles in Japan and doesn’t feel like she belongs. Will she finally embrace her parents’ country and feel more accepted?
Critical analysis
These touching book signifies the difficulties of not finding a place for someone from another culture to fit in. May’s parents were not comfortable in American and May is not comfortable in Japan. This is a sad story because neither one of them is comfortable together in one place.
Not only does May have to move to another country, but her name also is changed. In American she was known as May, but in Japan her Japanese name is used, Ma-chan. Her food choices change from eating pancakes and muffins and tea with milk and sugar at her friends’ houses to only eating Japanese cuisine.
The illustrations are simple but still full of detail. The skin detail is a faint white with just a hint of tan. The watercolors Say uses are brilliant soft colors. The clothing changes style very early in the book. The first page has May in her dress on the front porch and above her waves an American flag. The next illustration shows May in her kimono in Japan. Her facial expressions are very blank throughout most of the story. Readers will be able to appreciate the turn of events for May and notice the change of expression on her face. She begins to look more elated and personable.
What makes this book more special than most, is that the story is about the author’s parents and how they met. It is a touching story and tribute to them and even has a watercolor picture of the both of them in the back.
Review excerpt
School Library Journal
The pages are filled with detailed drawings featuring Japanese architecture and clothing, and because of the artist's mastery at drawing figures, the people come to life as authentic and sympathetic characters. This is a thoughtful and poignant book that will appeal to a wide range of readers, particularly our nation's many immigrants who grapple with some of the same challenges as May and Joseph, including feeling at home in a place that is not their own.
Publishers Weekly
Say sets off his cultural metaphor from the very start, contrasting the green tea Masako has for breakfast in her home, with the "tea with milk and sugar" she drinks at her friends' houses in America. Later, when she meets a young Japanese businessman who also prefers tea with milk and sugar to green tea, readers will know that she's met her match. Say reveals on the final page that the couple are his parents.
Connections
Read: TREE OF CRANES by Allen Say
GRANDFATHER’S JOURNEY by Allen Say
Say, Allen. Tea with Milk. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
Brief plot summary
May’s parents speak Japanese and eat Japanese food at home, while May eats American food and prefers to speak English. Her parents get homesick so they decide to move the family back to Japan. May struggles in Japan and doesn’t feel like she belongs. Will she finally embrace her parents’ country and feel more accepted?
Critical analysis
These touching book signifies the difficulties of not finding a place for someone from another culture to fit in. May’s parents were not comfortable in American and May is not comfortable in Japan. This is a sad story because neither one of them is comfortable together in one place.
Not only does May have to move to another country, but her name also is changed. In American she was known as May, but in Japan her Japanese name is used, Ma-chan. Her food choices change from eating pancakes and muffins and tea with milk and sugar at her friends’ houses to only eating Japanese cuisine.
The illustrations are simple but still full of detail. The skin detail is a faint white with just a hint of tan. The watercolors Say uses are brilliant soft colors. The clothing changes style very early in the book. The first page has May in her dress on the front porch and above her waves an American flag. The next illustration shows May in her kimono in Japan. Her facial expressions are very blank throughout most of the story. Readers will be able to appreciate the turn of events for May and notice the change of expression on her face. She begins to look more elated and personable.
What makes this book more special than most, is that the story is about the author’s parents and how they met. It is a touching story and tribute to them and even has a watercolor picture of the both of them in the back.
Review excerpt
School Library Journal
The pages are filled with detailed drawings featuring Japanese architecture and clothing, and because of the artist's mastery at drawing figures, the people come to life as authentic and sympathetic characters. This is a thoughtful and poignant book that will appeal to a wide range of readers, particularly our nation's many immigrants who grapple with some of the same challenges as May and Joseph, including feeling at home in a place that is not their own.
Publishers Weekly
Say sets off his cultural metaphor from the very start, contrasting the green tea Masako has for breakfast in her home, with the "tea with milk and sugar" she drinks at her friends' houses in America. Later, when she meets a young Japanese businessman who also prefers tea with milk and sugar to green tea, readers will know that she's met her match. Say reveals on the final page that the couple are his parents.
Connections
Read: TREE OF CRANES by Allen Say
GRANDFATHER’S JOURNEY by Allen Say
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