Nana’s Books:  Tea With Milk

Nana’s Books:  Tea With Milk, by Allen Say, written in 1999.

Reminder:  Nana’s Books are rated G.  Anyone could read them, or listen to them being read aloud.

Particulars (Out of 5):   Positive role models: *****  Alcohol or drugs: None.   Inappropriate language:  None.  Sexual references:  None.

Age:  4+

   This is not just a sweet story, but a beautifully and gently illustrated book.   It is Allen Say’s own story, a true fairy tale of how his parents found each other – two strangers in a foreign land – and forged a new life together.

            It begins with a little girl named Masako.  Her parents, who came to California from Japan, call her Ma-chan, and speak to her in Japanese.  Everyone else calls her May, and speaks to her in English.  At home, eats rice, miso soup and drinks green tea for breakfast.  At friends’ houses, she eats pancakes and muffins, and drinks tea with milk and sugar.

            When May graduates from high school, she wants to go to college and live in San Francisco – but her parents are homesick and return to Japan, where May is an outsider.  There’s no tea with milk, no fried chicken, no spaghetti, and no chairs: she has to wear a kimono and sit on the floor.   May has to go to high school all over again to learn her own language – but the students laugh at her and call her “Gaijin” (foreigner).  Her parents hire a matchmaker, and try to set her up with a “charming young man” of good family.  May’s response:  “He’s charming like a catfish!”

            May goes to the big city – Osaka – and gets a job at a department store, where her fluency in English quickly becomes very useful.  She meets a young businessman, Joseph, who also feels like an outsider.  Joseph was raised by English foster parents and went to an English school – where he grew up drinking tea with milk and sugar, and crumpets.  They become friends, and then fall in love and get married.  Allen Say is their first child, and guess how he drinks his tea?

Here’s the Amazon link.  It is still in print, and at the time I’m writing this is available for $7.99 (paperback).  There are also plenty of used copies available.

©Janet Farrar Worthington

Note:  I am an Amazon affiliate, so if you do click a link and buy a book, I will theoretically make a small amount of money, but I’m just starting this thing, so I don’t even know how that works.   Still, full disclosure, etc.