Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say

I was immediately touched by this story as soon as I started reading it.  Everlasting pain, struggles and dilemma  that every immigrant has to go through in his/her life is my own story. You leave your country for another, and your country and the world you left behind lives in you, you cannot forget it. Sometimes memories torture me, and I miss the mountains and rivers of my homeland like the author's grandfather. I find myself thinking of my childhood a lot, happy memories, all those moments with people dear to me, that represent important figures in my life. You realize time is fleeting, if only you could go back to past to relieve some of those happy moments. Living abroad you end up being aware even more of time passage. If only I could go every six months and see my grandmother, parents and all the friends.  Good conversation, socializing is worth of gold and cannot be replaced by anything else in life.  I understand his grandfather's yearning for his old country.
 I was not surprised that he loved most California. I got to like it too. I loved the diversity of people and the landscape. Landscape reminded me of Bosnia. I miss the mountains, green rivers and streams, evergreen forests so much as Iowa is flat. I am not just used to it.   I loved the book so much that I bought it. It also made me think of the the struggles Asian people have to undergo when settling here in the US.  I have many friends that are from Asia and I try to learn a little bit from each culture. At the same time I realize I love the feeling of being able to meet  many diverse people from all over the world here in my new homeland. And those cross cultural influences change a person completely and deepen our understanding. I am sure I will be reading this book to my own children one day.
Before reading  I would ask students to describe a place they have visited on a vacation or a family visit. I would ask them to explain how it that place different than the place they live. Then after reading the story we would discuss about illustrations in the book.  I would ask them to give me their understanding of what is depicted by illustrations, who are the people they see, and  what is the time period they represent.
I would have children talk to the oldest person in their family to find out what was life like when that person was growing up. After that we would explore the medium of watercolor.  I would have students illustrate the favorite place using watercolors and then describe that place in a story.