AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR ALLEN SAY TO LAUNCH LATEST BOOK, 'ERIKA-SAN', JAN. 3, AT MUSEUM

World-renowned author and illustrator Allen Say will launch his first book in two years, Erika-san, at a special reading and book signing set for Saturday, January 3, 2009, beginning at 2 p.m. at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo.

Based on a true story, the newest masterpiece from the Caldecott medalist is Erika-san, which traces the life of a young girl—inspired as a child by a magical painting of a teahouse. The book begins, "In her grandmother’s house, framed pictures hung in the hallway. One of them showed a cottage with lighted windows. Erika would remember that picture all her life."

When she finally travels to Japan to teach English, she is shocked by the crowds and asks to be reassigned to a post on a remote island. There she finally connects with the Old Japan of her dreams and meets a young Japanese teacher, Aki-san, who takes her on weekend bicycle journeys to explore the rocky seacoast, rice paddies, and gorgeous mountains of her new island home. These weekend journeys lead her to the teahouse she has sought for so long, and, with Aki at her side, Erika-san knows she is home at last.

Allen Say dedicated the book to his real-life inspiration, Ursala, who taught on the remote Japanese island of Amakusa for more than two years. The two met by chance at a Portland, Oregon, sushi restaurant. They struck up a conversation at the counter, and, fascinated by her story, Say asked her if he could adapt her tale into a book. They returned to Amakusa Island together, where she introduced him to her friends and coworkers and they visited the places she had frequented.

Allen Say is the award-winning creator of nearly twenty books, including Grandfather’s Journey, winner of the Caldecott Medal, which is presented to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published that year. He is known for his unique ability to subtly capture the immigrant experience, his evocative watercolors, and poetic language.

Say spent the first fifteen years of his life in Japan, studying art with the master cartoonist Noro Shinpei, and immigrated to the United States when he was sixteen years old. For years he worked as a successful commercial photographer, writing and illustrating picture books on a part-time basis. But in 1987, while illustrating The Boy of the Three-Year Nap (a Caldecott Honor book), he recaptured the joy he had known working in his master’s studio and decided to make a full-time commitment to doing what he loves best: creating books for children.

Recently, Say’s work has been featured in exhibitions at the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts and the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In 2000, the Japanese American National Museum premiered the exhibition, Allen Say’s Journey: The Art and Words a Children’s Book Author. While exploring the National Museum’s exhibition, Common Ground: The Heart of Community, Say became aware of the unconstitutional forced removal of thousands of Japanese Americans from their homes by the U.S. government during World War II. That inspired him to create the book, Home of the Brave.

This program is free to National Museum members or with general admission. Books are available at the Museum Store and online at www.janmstore.com. For more information, call the Japanese American National Museum at (213) 625-0414.