The Ink-Keeper’s Apprentice by Allen Say

Determined to become an artist, young Sei Koichi convinces the famous cartoonist Noro Shinpei to take him on as an apprentice. Under Sensei’s (Japanese for “teacher”) nurturing tutelage, he receives a new name, Kiyoi, and comes of age with a growing independence in postwar Japan.

Apprentice is an autobiographical novel based on Caldecott Medal-winning Allen Say’s own boyhood in Japan (Say’s mother is Japanese, his father ethnically Korean adopted by British parents); it was first published in 1979 and reissued in 1994.

Review: “Asian American Titles,” What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature, Gale Research, 1997

Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult

Published: 1979, 1994