Picture Book of the Month: Kamishibai Man by Allen Say

February 2010

Kamishibai Man
By Allen Say
Illustrated by Allen Say
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 32 pages
ISBN: 978-0618479542
KAMISHIBAI is a storytelling method that originated in Japanese Buddhist temples. A miniature theatre with illustrated cards are used to tell stories. In towns and cities, the storyteller also sells his audience homemade sweets. Allen Say's story is of a kamishibai man who is forced into retirement when television lures his usual audience away. However, his enduring love for storytelling compels him, years later, to return to the city and share his stories one last time. Say's delicate paintings depict the passing of time and the changes that come with it through the kamishibai man's physical appearance, as well as the increasing bustle of the city as it develops through the years. The kamishibai man and his wife, on the other hand, symbolise, through their dress and their faith in the old ways, the enduring attraction of a good story