In some ways this is a book Allen Say, an acclaimed artist, has been working his way up to for years. Many of Say's books are drawn from his own childhood memories. His novel The Ink-Keeper's Apprentice looked back at the years he spent as an assistant to his favorite childhood cartoonist, Noro Shinpei. Drawing from Memory is an extension of that work. In the first pages, we're introduced to the school-aged Say, who grew up by the seashore in Yokohama, Japan, and

—Michele Norris