What's Hatching? Book

Grandfather's Journey is the 1993 Caldecott-winning picture book about the homesickness his grandfather had for both the U. S. and Japan, depending on which country he was in. Say says he shares this same homesickness for both countries with his grandfather. Lavishly illustrated/painted, it is Say's biographical tribute to his grandfather. It's an illustrated story more than a comics-style "sequential art" story the one-time photographer had so admired as a young man.

I imagined some of the paintings were based on family photographs. It's short, and sweet, and Say says he really came to know his grandfather in the two-year process of making the book. I read the 20th anniversary edition at the 25th anniversary of its publication.