Erika San

Bibliography

Say, Allen. 2009. Erika-san. New York, NY. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN: 9780618889334

Plot Summary

Erika, a young American girl, falls in love with a watercolor print of Japanese house hanging in her Grandmother’s home. She decides at an early age to travel to Japan. Erika’s grandmother helps her to learn all about the Japanese culture by reading to her at bedtime. Erika studies Japanese from middle school through college. On the day of graduation, Erika leaves for her new teaching job in Tokyo. When she arrives in Tokyo, she is overwhelmed. Determined to find the perfect place represented in the picture, Erika pleads with the job agency to find her a quieter place. She finally finds a job on a beautiful remote island that no one else wants. There she meets Aikira-san. He offers to show her around the island. On a biking trip, she finally finds the house in her beloved picture.

Critical Analysis

This beautiful picture book is written with older readers in mind. The book is filled with images of modern Japanese culture such as the huge city of Tokyo and the bullet train. As Erika travels farther out in search of the peaceful scene in the beloved picture, readers see images that represent the older Japanese culture. However, Say does not always explain what the readers are looking at. I felt lost when it came to the evening scene in the large town square. It is obvious that there is a ceremony or parade going on but I never figured out what it meant. Sparing use of the Japanese language such as Mama-san, Papa-san and the restaurant named “Kamome”- which means “seagull” also add to the authenticity of the story. The story is heartwarming and amazingly simple. The tea ceremony is another cultural marker that is not explained in detail however, it does add to the authenticity of the story. Erika’s story is told in a way that expresses her desire to find the quiet, solitary place she has dreamed about and her success in finding it.

Review Excerpts

From School Library Journal
Say's exquisite paintings provide backdrop for a charming fairy tale with a contemporary, feminist twist. Here, it is a girl (read "princess") whose quest to find her heart's desire is at the core of the story. As a child, Erika becomes entranced with a painting on her grandmother's wall, depicting a small rustic house in Japan. Determined to find it, she prepares (in true fairy-tale fashion) for her journey, learning about the country and studying the language. Following college, she begins her search, and accepts a teaching assignment in Japan. Once there, it takes the proverbial three challenges before she finds success. Tokyo is too large, another (unnamed) city is too noisy, but in the third place—a small rural island community—Erika finds the house of her dreams, a welcoming class of children, and a "prince" named Aki to share her life. The house in the painting, she discovers, is a teahouse, where one day, kimono-clad, she happily performs a formal tea ceremony for Aki. Say's soft-colored paintings, detailed but not busy, contain just the right amount of nuance to build the story. He nicely contrasts the busyness of the cities with the verdant landscapes of the country, casting a happy-ever-after glow to the tale. More romantic and idealistic than many of Say's stories, Erika-San will find readers beyond the usual picture-book crowd.

Children's Literature
As a little girl, Erika falls in love with a cottage shown in a picture her grandfather brought back from Japan. She becomes fascinated with Japan and Japanese stories; she even studies Japanese through college. Afterwards, Erika takes a teaching job in Tokyo, but she doesn’t like the city and soon moves on to a place where she hopes to find old Japan. On a remote island, she meets Aki, who shows her around. She discovers a teahouse that looks like the cottage in her grandfather’s picture and studies the tea ceremony. With Aki she finds her happy ending in the Japan of her dreams. Say’s illustrations are full-page realistic watercolors framed on white pages. We see a sleek bullet train in a meticulously clean station and masses of passengers exiting the Tokyo train. We also see the countryside and Erika’s class of young schoolgirls in their uniforms. The visuals are more informative than emotionally moving, but they do offer views of Japan along this sentimental story of crossing cultures.

Connections

The book, Kodomo : Children of Japan by Susan Kuklin will give readers an informative, insightful look at daily life and traditional Japanese customs and culture ISBN: 9780399226137

Tea With Milk by Allen Say ISBN: 9780395904954

Poetry: One Leaf Rides the Wind : Counting in a Japanese Garden by Celeste Davidson Mannis ; illustrated by Susan Kathleen Hartung ISBN: 9780670035250

Students can learn about the Japanese Tea Ceremony at this website: http://kidscookingwithcricket.blogspot.com/2008/03/japanese-tea-ceremony.html