It Began with a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way

by Kyo Maclear

Hardcover, 2019

Status

Available

Collection

Picture books

Publication

HarperCollins (2019), Edition: Illustrated, 48 pages

Description

"Gyo Fujikawa's iconic children's books are beloved all over the world. Now it's time for Gyo's story to be told--a story of artistic talent that refused to be constrained by rules or expectations. Growing up quiet and lonely at the beginning of the twentieth century, Gyo learned from her relatives the ways in which both women and Japanese people lacked opportunity. Her teachers and family believed in her and sent her to art school and later Japan, where her talent flourished. But while Gyo's career grew and led her to work for Walt Disney Studios, World War II began, and with it, her family's internment. But Gyo never stopped fighting--for herself, her vision, her family and her readers--and later wrote and illustrated the first children's book to feature children of different races interacting together."--… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member LibrarianRyan

This is a look at the life story of artist Gyo Fujikawa. Later in life she became known as a children’s book writer/illustrator, but before that, she held many positions in art life, including at Disney. This story is detailed about her early life, and how she got to being a children’s book

illustrator. But it basically stops there. There are very few references made to her actual books except on. I love the idea, the illustrations are great, but I think the execution could have been better.

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LibraryThing member Lindsay_W

It Began with a Page is a beautiful tribute to the life and work of Gyo Fujikawa. Fujikawa overcame poverty, racism and sexism to pursue a career in illustration in 1920s America. Despite her family’s internment during WWII, or perhaps because of it, she later put her career on the line to

produce a book with black, brown and white babies on the same page. This at a time when segregation was not only the norm in America, it was still law. This is the kind of literary hero we should be celebrating. I’m so glad this book is shedding light on her story. Diverse books don’t just happen, they are fought for by people like Gyo Fujikawa.

Created with the permission and support of Fujikawa’s family, It Began with a Page author Kyo Maclear shows a great deal of care and reverence in telling her story. Julie Morstad's beautiful illustrations pay homage to Fujikawa’s fight for diversity in children’s books.

“Gyo made books that opened the door for today’s conversations about diversity. She started with an empty white page and a wish for a bigger, better world and laid out a whole dream – inviting publishers, teachers, readers, future writers and illustrators to imagine a more inclusive future.” (from the author and illustrator’s note)

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LibraryThing member melodyreads

Excellent biography!!

LibraryThing member Familyhistorian

Gyo Fujikawa was an artist and illustrator who grew up in America. She grew into her drawing and studied art at a time when the field was dominated by men. Her family was interred during WWII but she wasn’t as she was working on the east coast. Perhaps it was the upset of this time that made her

insist that her illustrations for children’s books be allowed to show children of all colours playing together. She was an artist who led the way towards tolerance.

Her story was told in simple words and charming illustrations. The book would be accessible to children which is fitting as kids were her greatest fans.

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LibraryThing member AbigailAdams26

Canadian author/illustrator team Kyo Maclear and Julie Morstad, whose previous collaborations include Julia, Child and Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli, turn to the story of Japanese-American artist and picture-book creator Gyo Fujikawa in this biographical story for young

children. Born in 1903, Fujikawa was the daughter of first generation Japanese immigrants. She grew up and attended school in California, and in the 1920s she became one of the first Japanese-American women to go to college, where she studied art. Living on the east coast at the outset of World War II, she was spared internment, although her parents and brother were imprisoned along with the rest of the west coast (and Hawaiian) Japanese-Americans. After the war, she began working on children's books, and in 1963, after some resistance from publishers who thought books depicting a diverse range of children wouldn't sell well, her groundbreaking Babies was published...

I'm somewhat chagrined to admit that although well familiar with her name, I have never picked up any of Fujikawa's books, and this despite my interest in children's literature. That said, I have enjoyed other titles from both Maclear and Morstad, so when a friend recommended this one - thank you, Kathryn! - I immediately sought it out. It is a powerfully told and beautifully-illustrated book, offering a storytelling narrative that gives the broad strokes of the story, and an afterword that fills in more information. I was moved by Fujikawa's life story, and by her principled stand for diversity in children's books - she was definitely a groundbreaker - and after reading It Began with a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way I do intend to track down some of her work.

My only critique of the book, and it is something I have noticed with a number of other works devoted to pioneering figures, is the false claim on the front dust-jacket blurb that a picture-book featuring an international set of babies, babies of all races and backgrounds, had never been done before Fujikawa's Babies. As someone who greatly enjoyed the lovely Small Rain: Verses from the Bible, which was published in 1943, won a Caldecott Honor for illustrator Elizabeth Orton Jones, and likewise featured small children of all races, I know this claim to be untrue. In this respect I'm reminded of the similarly misguided Balderdash!: John Newbery and the Boisterous Birth of Children's Books, which made the erroneous claim that Anglophone children's literature began with the mid-18th-century publisher John Newbery. I don't really understand why authors and book promoters do this. Is it ignorance? A wish to impress with a claim of being "first?" Isn't is enough to state that the figure in question was highly influential, or that they were one of the first to do something? Do they have to be the first (or only one) to have done something, for it to have meaning? I certainly don't think so, and I don't think that the existence of Small Rain: Verses from the Bible takes away from Fujikawa's accomplishment, so it bothers me that unnecessary claims of singularity or being first are often made in this regard, and that the result is a flattened, simplified view of history.

Leaving that issue aside, I did greatly enjoy this one, and would recommend it to picture-book lovers of all ages, as well as to young would-be artists in need of a little inspiration.

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LibraryThing member nbmars

As the author notes at the conclusion of this picture book, Gyo (pronounced “ghee-o”) Fujikawa was born in Berkeley, California in 1908 to first generation Japanese American immigrants. She loved art from an early age and was enjoying some success before the bombing of Pearl Harbor in World War

II made suspects of all in the U.S. with Japanese heritage. Gyo’s family was sent to an interment camp at theSanta Anita Park racetrack wehre they lived in horse stalls. Gyo, living on the East Coast, was able to avoid imprisonment.

Following the war, Gyo began doing book illustrations and in 1963 published Babies which she both wrote and illustrated. It was a pioneering book because it showed babies of all colors mixing together, which, as the author writes, “was not done in early 1960s America.” The book became a bestseller however and Gyo went on to create more than fifty books for children.

In a Note from both the author and illustrator, we learn that Gyo’s work has been published in more than 22 countries.

Gyo died in New York City three weeks after turning 90.

Illustrator Julie Morstad reports she was taken by Gyo’s sense of clarity, composition, and “detailed delicacy.” She tried to “draw like her” if she could. Her artwork is lovely.

Both author and illustrator convey that Gyo was a trailblazer and a rule breaker, overcoming obstacles in her path to do what she loved and believed in.

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LibraryThing member Lisa2013

Lovely, informative, powerful biography of an artist and rule breaking visionary. It’s an excellent book and it touched me deeply.

I loved the true story, I enjoyed the art, and I appreciated the more detailed information (with photos) in the back of the book for older children & adults that

deepened the narrative.

Highly recommended for readers/listeners with any interest in children’s picture books, the WWII treatment by the United States of people with Japanese ancestry, and so much about American history, and fans of the creators of this book. Great for kids who feel like outsiders and also those who might fear/ignore kids that seem different form them in any way. The art & artist are inspirational. The subject’s family’s experience during WWII was heartbreaking. Both were compelling subjects.

My only quibble is that I’d liked to have seen more examples of Fujikawa’s art work.

The subject of this book, Gyo Fujikawa ([author:Gyo Fujikawa|30312]) wrote and published (fought to publish!) the book Babies ([book:Babies|563584]) in 1963, I think maybe just a year after The Snowy Day ([book:The Snowy Day|2021122]) by Ezra Jack Keats was published. My class’s fourth grade school librarian discussed that book with my class in 1962, even though generally she did not read us picture books, because of the groundbreaking nature of the black boy in the illustrations. Yes, that was something unfortunately highly unusual then about picture books. I’m happy to know that Fujikawa was doing the same thing at that time, and delighted that today’s children’s books are so much better regarding inclusiveness.

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LibraryThing member KimberleyR.

I enjoyed this book, I’m not sure what age range this is for, I think it would be too long for my niece who is 4, but likely a good length for age 5-8. I appreciated this was based on a true story and the illustrations are adorable!

LibraryThing member Kalleigh

This book is a beautiful representation of the Japanese american community. I loved reading this story with my children in the classroom and hope to continue to read it each year.

The pages and illustrations catch the attention of the readers and pull you into the story making you listen to each

word and connect with the characters.

Overall it was an amazing story that I and my students really enjoyed.

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LibraryThing member Lacy_007

I loved this book. The illustrations were stunning, the story was beautifully told, and Gyo Fujikawa is so incredibly inspirational. This was also an eye-opening book about what it was like here in America in the 1940s during WWII for Japanese-Americans. I have not come across a lot of books that

explore that perspective of WWII and it was heart-wrenching, though not surprising, to read how mistreated they were.

Overall, a great read and would highly recommend!

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