How My Parents Learned to Eat

Summary of Book

How My Parents Learned to Eat illustrates a story, narrated by a young girl, about a Japanese woman named Aiko and an American sailor named John who express a fear of dinner dates. Aiko is unfamiliar with using knives and forks as John is with using chopsticks.

Author Biography

Ina Rosen Friedman was born January 5, 1926, in Chester, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Jacob Sidney, a paper jobber, and Libby Leibowitz Rosen, a homemaker.

Exploring old things started as a young child for Rosen. She would visit her father's wholesale paper company that sold paper bags, napkins, toilet paper, sticky tape, school supplies, and even Halloween masks

Illustrator Biography

Allen Say was born in Yokohama, Japan, in 1937. He dreamed of becoming a cartoonist from the age of six, and, at age twelve, apprenticed himself to his favorite cartoonist, Noro Shinpei. For the next four years, Say learned to draw and paint under the direction of Noro, who has remained Say's mentor. Say illustrated his first children's book -- published in 1972 -- in a photo studio between shooting assignments. For years, Say continued writing and illustrating children's books on a part-time basis.