Tea with Milk

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Bibliography
Say, A. (1999). Tea with milk. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Plot Summary
May has lived all her life in the states, it is her home for as long as she can remember. Her world turns upside down when after graduation she must move back with her parents to Japan, because they have grown homesick. In Japan everyone calls her Masako which is her birth name. However, to her it sounds live someone else. She must return to school to learn Japanese even though she has already graduated. Masako misses her home and struggles to make friends. Her family expects her to follow Japanese traditions, but Masako won’t have it. She leaves and finds a job in a nearby city and eventually finds a friend in a boy named Joseph.
Critical Analysis
The book has many cultural markers and demonstrates the hardships of being Japanese American.  May is used to a life in California and even though her heritage is Japanese she is immersed in an American form of life. This causes her to feel out of place when she must move to Japan with her parents. The customs and traditions she must follow are not the ones she grew up with. She misses the food, the clothes, language, and even being called May. The illustrations show how May must dress in Japan compared to California. It also shows the emotions the main character feels throughout the story. May comes to the realization that she cannot change who she is. She does not want to be in an arranged marriage, she does not like sitting down until her legs go numb, she likes speaking English, and she likes her tea with milk and sugar. Though, she learns to live in her new home and finds that certain things are not so bad after all like wearing her kimonos and the people that surround her.
Review Excerpts
Review in Publishers Weekly, “Say's masterfully executed watercolors tell as much of this story about a young woman's challenging transition from America to Japan as his eloquent, economical prose.”
Review in Horn Book, "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."

Review in Kirkus, “Painted with characteristic control and restraint, Say's illustrations, largely portraits, begin with a sepia view of a sullen child in a kimono, gradually take on distinct, subdued color, and end with a formal shot of the smiling young couple in Western dress.”

Connections
Students could be assigned a group activity in which they can discuss how they would feel if they had to move into a foreign country. Similar books:
Choi, Yangsook. The Name Jar. ISBN ISBN13: 9780440417996
Say, Allen. Grandfather's Journey. ISBN13: 9780395570357

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