The Boy in the Garden

 Bibliography

Say, A. (2010). The boy in the garden. Houghton Mifflin. 

Plot Summary

A young boy has a realistic dream based on a bronze crane statue and a story his mother read to him. 

Critical Analysis

In order to give the reader background knowledge, author and illustrator Allen Say provides the story of The Grateful Crane. It is a Japanese fairy tale that inspires Jiro’s dream later on in the story. 

Say is a talented illustrator. The images done in watercolor provide lots of detail, and each character from the father to Jiro to the mysterious Crane Woman have original facial features. Mr. Ozu can barely be seen on the page when Jiro is woken up, interestingly enough. Japanese architecture is expressed when Jiro gazes out the window at the intricate garden, when Mr. Ozu and Jiro’s father watch him try to sneak up on the crane, and with the cottage Jiro finds. 

When Jiro stumbles upon the cottage, he is convinced it is the same one from the story his mother has told him. There he finds a small kimono that fits him perfectly, and he is able to tie the “obi” behind his back on his own. 

The fantastical dream he has revolves around trying to take care of the Crane Woman so that she doesn’t have to weave. It seems that Jiro wants to be older than what he is as he likens himself to his father going out to work in the morning to find the firewood to keep them warm and then knowing that he has to feed the woman. He is insistent that she not weave because he doesn’t want her to turn back into a crane and pluck her feathers. He wants to take care of her the way the woodcutter from the original story did not. 

The end of the story makes it seem as though the bronze crane was the real crane woman with the father saying, “‘You know, son, for a moment that crane looked real.’” And Jiro smiles after his father states that it is a fine statue. 

This was a beautiful story that weaved Japanese fairy tales and a little boy's imagination together with detailed watercolor illustrations as visual support. 

Review Excerpt(s)

"Say is at the height of his artistic achievement in this tale of a little boy named Jiro and the powerful impact that a story has on him....This is a beautiful, moving, quietly mysterious read, ripe with possibilities for interpretation and contemplation."—Kirkus Reviews 

Carefully chosen words mesh seamlessly with dramatic and effective paintings, bringing both energy and tranquility to carry the story to its thought-provoking ending. - School Library Journal 

Connections 

-Activities

• Journal Entry Idea: Describe a fairy tale or story that a grown up in your life used to tell you that you believed in. Why did you believe in it? 

• Compare the story of The Grateful Crane to that of Rumpelstiltskin. What similarities and differences do they have with one another? 

• The left pages have text and the right pages have the watercolor drawing. Block out the text and have students come up with their own story based on the illustrations. 

• Students can debate on whether what Jiro experienced was a dream or real. 

• Journal Entry: Why do you think Jiro was insistent that the Crane Woman not go into the other room to weave? 

• Journal Entry: Why do you think the author pointed out the specific date - January 3rd - at the beginning of the story? How is the New Year significant? 

• Cause and Effect: Jiro was caught trying to sneak up after the crane but was caught by his father and Mr. Ozu. After that, he found the woodcutter’s cottage. How are the two events related?