Drawing from Memory

Celebrated Japanese-American children's artist Allen Say, who won the Caldecott Medal for Grandfather's Journey, a picture-book exploring his family's complicated history moving back and forth between Japan and the United States through the generations, chronicles his own youth and coming of age as an artist in this graphic novel/picture-book autobiography for young readers. Born in 1937 near Yokohama, Japan, Say was still a young child during WWII, and evacuated to a small village with his mother and sister. After the war, and his parents' subsequent divorce, Say was sent to live with his grandmother in Tokyo, where he was convinced to work hard at his schooling by the promise of his own lodgings. But although he did indeed succeed show more academically, getting in to the prestigious Aoyama Middle School, his true passion was art, and he managed to convince Noro Shinpei, the most famous cartoonist in Japan, to take him on as a student. Devoting himself to his studies, Say lived and worked alone from the age of thirteen. A number of years later, in July of 1953, Say left Japan, accepting his estranged father's offer of passage to America...

As informative as it is entertaining, Drawing from Memory is children's biography at its best, offering an immensely engaging look at the youth of a celebrated children's author and artist. I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about Say's early life, given the fact that I have enjoyed so many of his picture-books, which are often drawn from the history and life-stories of various Say family members. He has certainly lived an interesting life, to judge by the first sixteen years! I can't imagine a thirteen-year-old being given his own living situation today, outside of a supervised one such as would be provided by a boarding school. Nor can I imagine an ambitious young person easily convincing a master in his chosen discipline to teach and sponsor him, without some sort of introduction. However that may be, there is no doubt that Say was compelled to follow his dream to become an artist, a calling he felt from the time he was a small boy, and that the world has benefited from his work. Recommended to Allen Say fans, and to anyone looking for good biography/autobiography for middle-grade readers. For myself, I look forward to reading the next volume of Say's autobiography, The Inker's Shadow. show less

DRAWING FROM MEMORY
ALLEN SAY
Scholastic Press
$17.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Caldecott Medalist Allen Say presents a stunning graphic novel chronicling his journey as an artist during WWII, when he apprenticed under Noro Shinpei, Japan’s premier cartoonist.

DRAWING FROM MEMORY is Allen Say's own story of his path to becoming the renowned artist he is today. Shunned by his father, who didn't understand his son's artistic leanings, Allen was embraced by Noro Shinpei, Japan's leading cartoonist and the man he came to love as his "spiritual father." As WWII raged, Allen was further inspired to consider questions of his own heritage and the motivations of those around him. He worked hard in rigorous show more drawing classes, studied, trained--and ultimately came to understand who he really is.

Part memoir, part graphic novel, part narrative history, DRAWING FROM MEMORY presents a complex look at the real-life relationship between a mentor and his student. With watercolor paintings, original cartoons, vintage photographs, and maps, Allen Say has created a book that will inspire the artist in all of us.

My Review: Allen Say's world doesn't exist anymore. This is the roughest part of getting truly old. The kind of universe where a twelve-year-old boy could be thought capable of living on his own is long gone. The kind of world where the famous cartoonist could be reached by the simple expedient of showing up at his place of work and saying, "I'd like to work for you," well! Need I belabor the point? Say wrote this book in a world that could be on a different planet than the one he grew up on. But from such foreign stones he built an exciting life, a life of art and creation and replete with stories that need telling.

This book, a graphic memoir I suppose, though it's less thoroughgoing than is Lynda Barry's work (eg Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor), is no whit less sophisticated.

I recently read Artist Say's magisterial Silent Days, Silent Dreams. It was such a gorgeous visual feast and so deeply affecting a tale that I couldn't bear to leave his world for long. Look above, look below...do you blame me?

Look at the great simplicity of the lines you're tricked into believing are real, three-dimensional objects:

Look at the care and attention you're not smacked with, look at the invisible framing of each image that makes it the perfect size and the perfect space for exactly that moment of storytelling to be within.

See the colors? See the volume of each object, each space between objects?

See the texture of matte-coated paper, the way that it creates the same effect as a gallery's neutral wall color does? See the fruit of more than seventy years practicing what a master, a cicerone, a sensei was wise, prescient, generous enough to give the boy artist? We receive the gift's fruit.

There was never a truer aperçu proverbialized than, "A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." To your private orchard you bring trees whose shade soothes you, yet almost never will you stop to regard still less thank the long-gone hands and long-past rains that made the tree into what it is now.

Take that moment now, be grateful to Noro Shinpei for himself and for the soothing shadows of Allen Say's talented evocation of a world we can never see any other way but through his eyes and by his hands. Let him plant you a tree. show less

I propped open this graphic memoir on the dining room table when it arrived in the mail, and read a page or so each time I passed by on my way to/from the kitchen. Allen Say is an artist born in Japan in 1937. The story takes place mostly in the late 1940s and early 1950s. His parents divorced, his father remarried and took the children, and after a few years his mother's mother reclaimed the children and rewarded Allen with his own apartment when he passed the exam for acceptance into middle school at age 12. There he read in the newspaper that cartoonist Niro Shinpei had taken in a student, a 15 year old boy who had walked for two weeks to find him. Allen set out to find Noro Shinpei too, and did. The apprenticeship is described in show more words, and illustrated with drawings and photos, with practical and philosophical details about learning to draw, and hints of unrest in the surrounding post-war society. The story seemed rather spare and prosaic as I read it, but the author's note at the end, recounting his reunion with Noro Shinpei and family years later, conveys the intense emotion behind it. I surely missed things in a single pass through at sporadic moments.

(read 7 Jun 2012) show less

What a pleasure it was to read this book, both the words and the pictures. I have always admired Say's children's books. They are soulful and poignant. It is enlightening to read about his life growing up, how his father was estranged from him almost as soon as Say declared his love of art, and how he was left to fend for himself starting at the age of thirteen. There is a lonely quality to his work, a melancholy that suffuses his art. Now we understand why.

This book pays tribute to a very fine teacher, and reminds me of how important it is to find support where you can. Maybe your father is opposed to your ambition to be an artist. This leaves it up to you to find an artist and mentor who can give you the support you need.

Super talented Caldecott Medal winner Allen Say uses photography, his own art, and the art of others to tell the story of how he became an artist. Born in Japan in 1937, Say knew at a young age he wanted to be a cartoonist, but his parents were not at all happy about his interest in art. Then the war came, and his parents got divorced, and Say ended up living alone in Tokyo at the age of 13! He turned his apartment into an art studio, tracked down his cartoonist hero, Noro Shinpei, and asked to be his apprentice, and soon began his career as an artist. Wow. Though the text was a little disjointed at times, the art is obviously awesome and the story is inspiring. A recurring theme is "Let your dear child journey," which is an old show more Japanese saying.

I was especially touched by the afterward, in which Say confesses that he always wanted to write a book with his sensei, but Noro Shinpei passed away before he had the chance, so he sees this book as a posthumous collaboration fulfilling that dream. show less

This wonderful Caldecott Medal winner book that is written by Allen Say is a story that took place during WWII about Allen’s own way to becoming the artist he is today. Abandoned by his father who never really accepted Allen Say for who he really was, an artist, Allen met a man named Noro shinpei. Nor Shinpei was Japan's leading cartoonist. He is also the man who became like a father to Allen. Lovely artwork abounds, of various mediums. There are plenty of photos, and they greatly added to the text and artwork. Illustration is a mixture of photographs, drawing and sketches. I would highly recommended this book for anyone who is in to art or would like to learn about who Allen was and what his path was to become an artist.

Mesmerizing autobiography of the artist Allen Say. His pictures and descriptions are in perfect harmony. A quick read, leaving the reader to ponder our own life's journey and destiny.