Teachable Texts

17. Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say

July 13, 2009 at 9:00 am Leave a comment

Retell: Allen Say tells the story of how his grandfather made a home in both a village in Japan and in a city in America.

Topics: grandparents, journeys, San Francisco, Japan, World War II, California, travelling, home, being homesick, family

Units of Study: Memoir, Social Issues

Reading Skills: envisionment, interpretation, inference, making connections

Writing Skills: adding setting details, developing the heart of a story, including reflection, including endings that connect to the beginning

My Thoughts: I think I have a soft spot in my heart for this book because I too get homesick for more than one place.  Allen Say’s illustrations remind me of faded photographs and automatically put me into a reflective, sentimental mood.  This is a perfect text to use during the Memoir unit.  Though it starts out as a story about his grandfather, it ends up being more about the author himself.

Entry filed under: Asian-American Authors, Caldecott Award Winners, Male authors, Picture Books. Tags: endings, envisionment, family, grandparents, inference, interpretation, making connections, memoir, setting.