Shapes, Lines, and Light
My Grandfather's American Journey
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
Katie Yamasaki’s newest picture book celebrates the life of her grandfather, the acclaimed Japanese American architect Minoru Yamasaki.
Minoru Yamasaki described the feeling he sought to create in his buildings as “serenity, surprise, and delight.” Here, Katie Yamasaki charts his life and work: his childhood in Seattle’s Japanese immigrant community, paying his way through college working in Alaska’s notorious salmon canneries, his success in architectural school, and the transformative structures he imagined and built. A Japanese American man who faced brutal anti-Asian racism in post–World War II America and an outsider to the architectural establishment, he nonetheless left his mark on the world, from the American Midwest to New York City, Asia, and the Middle East.
This striking picture book renders one artist’s work through the eyes of another, and tells a story of a man whose vision, hard work, and humanity led him to the pinnacle of his field.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With evocative writing and light-filled illustrations, Yamasaki pays homage to the legacy of her grandfather, Japanese American architect Minoru "Yama" Yamasaki (1912–1986), who designed the World Trade Center, among many other buildings. Visceral descriptions of the prejudice Yama encountered over the course of his career infuse every aspect of the biography—from his labor for an Alaskan cannery to the bias he's shown as a job seeker during the Great Depression ("Have you ever tasted something bitter in your mouth?/ That's how they said ‘Japanese' ") to his efforts on behalf of family escaping internment camps during WWII. Airy, light-filled, welcoming constructions become Yama's response to these experiences: "The spaces he built connected to the humanity of everyday people." While the text often only gestures toward specific events ("Many years later, a terrible thing happened," accompanies an image of the Twin Towers billowing smoke), an author's note amply fills in the blanks with a full chronology of the figure's life. Appropriately, surreal artwork embraces the lofty shapes, lines, and light that define its subject's style. Ages 6–8.
