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Summary
Summary
A father helps his daughter find pride and inspiration in this masterful picture book.Yuriko hates her name when the children make fun of it and call her "Eureka!" Though she is half Japanese, the teasing makes her want to hide, to retreat even from the art projects she used to love. Fortunately she has a patient, kind father who finds gentle ways of drawing her out and reminding Yuriko of the traditions they share that have always brought her joy: walks in lovely Golden Gate Park, lunch at their favorite sushi restaurant, watching the fog blow in off the bay. It's enough... it's more than enough to face down her challenges with confidence.From the incomparable Allen Say comes another moving story taken from his personal experience and translated to the universal. This tale, dedicated with love to Say's daughter, is one for all parents who want their children to feel pride in their heritage, and to know their own greatest sources of strength and inspiration.THE FAVORITE DAUGHTER will be a favorite for years to come.
Author Notes
Allen Say was born in 1937 in Yokohama, Japan and grew up during the war, attending seven different primary schools amidst the ravages of falling bombs. His parents divorced in the wake of the end of the war and he moved in with his maternal grandmother, with whom he did not get along with. She eventually let him move into a one room apartment, and Say began to make his dream of being a cartoonist a reality. He was twelve years old.
Say sought out his favorite cartoonist, Noro Shinpei, and begged him to take him on as an apprentice. He spent four years with Shinpei, but at the age of 16 moved to the United States with his father. Say was sent to a military school in Southern California but then expelled a year later. He struck out to see California with a suitcase and twenty dollars. He moved from job to job, city to city, school to school, painting along the way, and finally settled on advertising photography and prospered. Say's first children's book was done in his photo studio, between shooting assignments. It was called "The Ink-Keeper's Apprentice" and was the story of his life with Noro Shinpei. After this, he began to illustrate his own picture books, with writing and illustrating becoming a sort of hobby. While illustrating "The Boy of the Three-year Nap" though, Say suddenly remembered the intense joy I knew as a boy in my master's studio and decided to pursue writing and illustrating full time.
Say began publishing books for children in 1968. His early work, consisting mainly of pen-and-ink illustrations for Japanese folktales, was generally well received; however, true success came in 1982 with the publication of The Bicycle Man, based on an incident in Say's life. "The Boy of the Three-Year Nap" published in 1988, and written by Dianne Snyder, was selected as a 1989 Caldecott Honor Book and winner of The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for best picture book.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Yuriko's classroom is an uncomfortable place to be a biracial child. "The new art teacher called me 'Eureka,' " Yuriko tells her father. "I want an American name, Daddy." Fortunately, Yuriko's father adores her-hence the book's title, Say's nickname for his only child. His ability to mediate between Japanese culture and American reality helps turn a frustrating class art assignment into triumph; Yuriko uses a collection of chopsticks and some fluffy cotton to construct a replica of the Golden Gate bridge blanketed in fog. Caldecott-winner Say's (Grandfather's Journey) meticulous draftsmanship and openhearted honesty make this a memorable piece of autobiography. Family photographs of Yuriko dressed in Japanese kimono add to the story's intimacy; she's pictured first as a toddler, and then, on the last page, as a young woman, a bit self-conscious in her finery. As a bonus, Say offers an affirming portrait of a divorced father savoring every minute of his shared custody, and of an artist coaching his child through cookie-cutter art assignments: "They're fun if you think of them as puzzles," he tells her. Ages 4-8. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Say's autobiographical picture books about members of his family (including Tree of Cranes, rev. 11/91, and Grandfather's Journey, rev. 9/93) have successfully told very specific, deeply personal stories bolstered by universal themes, and this one, featuring his favorite (and only) daughter, is another fine example. Young Yuriko is unhappy when her classmates make fun of her Japanese name and her appearance (she's biracial, with Asian features and blond hair). She's also unhappy with her art teacher's assignment to do yet another project on the Golden Gate Bridge. Everyone else is drawing the bridge, but Yuriko wants to do something different. Her father sagely uses her desire to be unique to help her see that her name and physical appearance set her apart in a good way. Filled with light, the realistic illustrations reflect the narrative's upbeat mood and tell the story in tandem with natural-sounding dialogue in which a dad handles his daughter's difficulties with both respect and humor. Say's adult fans will enjoy this inside look at the artist and his child -- who, at thirteen, wrote an essay about her father for this magazine (published in the July/August 1994 issue, to accompany his Caldecott Medal acceptance speech). Photos of Yuriko in a kimono as a young child and as a young woman add verisimilitude to a story that celebrates both creativity and individuality -- traits Say has clearly passed on to his daughter. jennifer m. brabander (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Yuriko, who is staying with her father for the weekend, comes home upset after the kids in art class make fun of her name. She decides she wants to be called Michelle from now on, which her father humors with judicious stoicism. Over the next couple of days he takes her to her favorite restaurant for sushi, through the Japanese Garden in Golden Gate Park, and to an ink-painting demonstration, but things turn sour again when they visit the Golden Gate Bridge which is supposed to be the subject of a class art project and find it shrouded in fog. One stroke of ingenuity on Yuriko's part later, however, and things are set right again. Say's artwork, rendered in pen and ink and watercolors, is as classy as ever. Although the little girl stars in every illustration, this clearly autobiographical book is very much from the father's point of view. Still, the genuine warmth and nontrivializing look at childhood troubles should endear this to a young audience. And the emphasis on celebrating one's culture while finding common ground with others is universally handy.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
LIKE many first-generation hyphenated Americans, I bore a murky cultural identity throughout my childhood. The daughter of Polish-born parents displaced by World War II, I carried my heritage as both a burden and a source of pride. Encountering, later, Cynthia Kadohata's stirring novels focusing on cultural assimilation, and the beautifully understated picture books by the Asian-American writer and illustrator Allen Say, who documents the conflicting emotions of Japanese immigrants and first-generation Japanese-Americans, I recognized the bittersweet richness of this kind of split heart. Say's new book, "The Favorite Daughter," is a tale about the author and his real-life American-born daughter, Yuriko, who runs up against this same mix of pride and embarrassment about her Japanese background. The story opens with Yuriko, presumably a child of divorced parents, arriving at her father's home and requesting a baby picture of herself for school. A photograph of a blond, almond-eyed toddler wearing a kimono is found (and reproduced in the book) - and declared "perfect." The following day, however, Yuriko comes home out of sorts. The new art teacher called her "Eureka," and her classmates, who know better, adopted the mispronounced name with hilarity. (Possessing a Polish nickname that never fails to necessitate repeating, at the very least, and causes embarrassment at its worst, I ached with her.) Her good-humored father goes along with her wishes to be called by an American name, while reengaging her in Japanese traditions. In "The Favorite Daughter," Say's watercolors are more casual and sketchier than the full-bodied, precise artwork in earlier books like his 1994 Caldecott Medal winner, "Grandfather's Journey." They partner well with the gentle, playful tone of the narrative, which is almost entirely dialogue. The book offers a lighthearted look at the angst of wanting to both blend in and stand out. Even as Yuriko conjures up American names for herself, she bemoans the class assignment, an art project on the Golden Gate Bridge. "We already drew the bridge in kindergarten, Daddy," she complains. He teasingly responds: "So you want an ordinary name, but you want to do something different from everyone else in art. I like the second part a lot." A foggy trip to the bridge leads to an inspired project. The closing photo of an older, smiling, kimonoclad Yuriko, accompanied by the announcement that father and daughter later traveled happily together to Japan, is indeed smile-inducing, but wraps things up a little too quickly and neatly. In "The Thing About Luck," Cynthia Kadohata's narrator, 12-year-old Summer Miyamoto, is a second-generation Japanese-American, like Kadohata herself. Kadohata is best known for her 2005 Newbery Medal winner, "Kira-Kira," about a Japanese-American family facing prejudice in the South. Summer and her younger brother, Jaz, are accompanying their Japanese-born grandparents through several Western states as part of a wheatharvesting crew. Their grandfather, Jiichan, is a combine driver and Summer assists their grandmother, Obaachan, in cooking for the crew. It has been a year without kouun, the Japanese word for good luck, Summer explains. Jaz's only friend moved away, her grandmother's back started hurting and Summer herself suffered from malaria, which left her obsessed with mosquitoes. She keeps a notebook of her drawings of the insect, which she copies from photographs. "The Thing About Luck" is enjoyable reading: the family dynamics have warmth and humor; Summer overcomes some personal challenges; and her mental meanderings take some unusual paths. At the very least, readers will learn more than anybody probably needs to know about wheat harvesting. Unlike some of Kadohata's most memorable characters, though, Summer wears her heritage lightly. Her only real tie to Japanese culture is her grandparents, who seem comfortable with the American way of life. Their employers and coworkers appear oblivious to their ethnicity; only once does anyone make what could be construed as a bigoted remark - a farmer in Oklahoma tells Jiichan, "I never seen a Chinese wheatie before." "'Japanese,'" Summer corrects him, "extra politely. . . . I felt like I had to use my best manners with people who didn't deal with many Asians. I felt like I was representing the whole Asian race." This declaration of her ethnicity comes as a surprise in a book that otherwise avoids the issue. It's not fair, of course, to expect writers to mine the same territory continually, even if that is often exactly what readers want. But if they relegate to the background the motifs that have made their earlier work powerful, we can hope that they deliver something equally compelling in their place. Much as there is to admire in both of these books, I felt just a little as though I had been offered Saylite and Kadohata-lite. Or, as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg might say, skim-milk versions of these very fine authors. Krystyna Poray Goddu is the author of "Dollmakers and Their Stories: Women Who Changed the World of Play."
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-While spending the weekend with her dad, Yuriko confesses that she is teased by her classmates for her blond hair and Japanese heritage. Through talking with her father, Yuriko learns to appreciate her biracial identity as they visit her favorite sushi restaurant and Golden Gate Park. Say supplements his tender watercolor illustrations with family photographs. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
When an episode of teasing makes Yuriko doubt herself--her name, her heritage, her interests--her father gently guides her back to her roots and herself. For a school assignment, Yuriko brings in a photograph of herself in a cherished kimono. When she comes home, her excitement has changed to despondence. Her classmates laughed and told her that Japanese dolls have black hair, while Yuriko is blonde. Then the new art teacher mispronounces her name and assigns a subject Yuriko has depicted in art before. In response, Yuriko impetuously declares she should now be called Michelle, and Michelle does not like art. Her father listens carefully and cleverly takes Yuriko to revisit the things she loves: her favorite restaurant for sushi and the Japanese Garden in Golden Gate Park. Illustrated with spare, clean watercolors, there is subtlety in this tale that's told almost completely through the dialogue between father and daughter. Some will identify with the cultural details that ground the tale; all will relate to how teasing makes Yuriko feel uncertain about the very things that make her unique. Yuriko does some critical and creative thinking about her identity and her art, proving herself her father's original--and favorite--daughter. This is as much a story about cultural pride as it about self-esteem and problem-solving, from which all can draw a lesson. (Picture book. 5-8)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
