TEA WITH MILK

TEA WITH MILK

by Allen Say

Image credit: www.scholastic.com

1. Bibliography

Say, Allen. 1999. Tea with Milk. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.  ISBN 0-395-90495-1

2. Plot Summary

This is a story about a young Japanese-American woman who grew up in San Francisco.  After she graduates high school, her parents become homesick and decide to return to Japan.  In Japan, Masako is unhappy and often feels like an outsider.  Instead of going to college, she must attend high school in Japan to begin to learn the language.  After her parents use a matchmaker to try to set her up with a banker from a good family, Masako is fed up with their traditional ways.  She decides to strike out on her own and get a job in the city of Osaka.  She begins working as an elevator operator in a department store, but she quickly advances by using her English skills to help foreign visitors shop in the store.  While at work, she meets Joseph, an equally worldly match who also enjoys his tea with milk and sugar.  They get married and decide to live in Japan. At the end of the story, the reader find out that the couple is the author's parents.

3. Critical Analysis

Tea with Milk can be added to the collection of excellent multicultural children's literature written from the insider perspective of Allen Say.  Say draws on his own life experience of living in both the Japanese and American cultures.  This story centers around the experience of his mother who began her life in America, but later lived in Japan.  Because of Masako's upbringing in America, she feels and looks like a foreigner in her parent's homeland.  Even though Masako's heritage is Japanese, she quickly realizes she is not interested in "flower arranging, calligraphy, and the tea ceremony".  Masako disappoints her parents when she does not enter into an arranged marriage and gets a job in the city.  Her parents' traditional Japanese values are set against Masako's American way of life showing that the bridging of two cultures rarely comes without conflict. 

In the beginning of the story, Say's watercolor portraits are sparse with muted colors; they convey the loneliness that Masako feels in Japan.  The illustrations become brighter and full of life when Masako dons her red dress from America and finds happiness with Joseph.  Say perfectly depicts the setting in his watercolors. Except for the first painting which takes place in America, each picture shows the uniqueness of Japan.  The special tools used in the tea ceremony, the details of her kimono, Japanese writing on the signs and the gilded halls of the department store combine to create an authentic setting. 

There are Asian-American cultural markers present throughout this book.  The physical appearance and traditional dress of the characters in the illustrations accurately depict the Japanese culture.  The main character Masako, or May as she is called in America, is shown wearing both a kimono and western-style clothing.  There are a variety of skin tones and facial features showing both Japanese and Caucasian people.  Masako is an outgoing and independent character that does not adhere to tradition or support stereotypes of Asian Americans.  Children of many backgrounds could be exposed to the culture of Japanese Americans through this realistic fiction text. Children that have immigrated to another country will be able to identify with Masako's struggle to fit in when she moves to Japan.

4. Review Excerpts and Awards

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL (May 1999) "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 (March 1999) "[Say's] exquisite, spare portraits convey emotions that lie close to the surface and flow easily from page to reader: with views of Masako's slumping posture and mask-like face as she dons her first kimono, or alone in the schoolyard, it's easy to sense her dejection.  Through choice words and scrupulously choreographed paintings, Say's story communicates both the heart's yearning for individuality and freedom and how love and friendship can bridge cultural chasms."

• ALA Notable Books for Children, 1999
• Children's Literature Choice List, 2000
• Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year, 1999
• School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 1999

5. Connections

• Interested readers could read the other stories about Allen Say's family members including Grandfather's Journey and Tree of Cranes.  
• After reading this book, a fun activity would be to have tea party in which students could taste the plain, green tea of May's youth and her favorite tea with milk and sugar that she enjoyed at friends' houses.