A memoir in paintings and words by internationally acclaimed illustrator, author, and teacher James McMullan.
A Booklist Top 10 Biography for Youth
“It is this dreamlike quality of my memories that I wanted to capture in some way in the paintings that accompany the text--to suggest in the images that the events occurred a long time ago in a simpler yet more exotic world, and that the players in that world, including me, are at a distance.”
Artist James McMullan’s work has appeared in the pages of virtually every American magazine, on the posters for more than seventy Lincoln Center theater productions, and in bestselling picture books. Now, in a unique memoir comprising more than fifty short essays and illustrations, the artist explores how his early childhood in China and wartime journeys with his mother influenced his whole life, especially his painting and illustration.
James McMullan was born in Tsingtao, North China, in 1934, the grandson of missionaries who settled there. As a little boy, Jim took for granted a privileged life of household servants, rickshaw rides, and picnics on the shore—until World War II erupted and life changed drastically. Jim’s father, a British citizen fluent in several Chinese dialects, joined the Allied forces. For the next several years, Jim and his mother moved from one place to another—Shanghai, San Francisco, Vancouver, Darjeeling—first escaping Japanese occupation then trying to find security, with no clear destination except the unpredictable end of the war. For Jim, those ever-changing years took on the quality of a dream, sometimes a nightmare, a feeling that persists in the stunning full-page, full-color paintings that along with their accompanying text tell the story of Leaving China.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Beautifully done.
By Sullivan
I haven't bothered to put in a few words on any book (and I've liked many) for many a moon but this lovely little memoir has really delighted me. Gently done however with many dark strokes we enter his fabulous early life. His grandparents enter Yangchow, China in l887 as missionaries coming from Ballycotton, Ireland. His parents establish an export business (lace) and prosper. Of course, the world will not stay still and upends the McMullan family idyll. War lords from Japan enter the frame and sensitive young boy James absorbs the horrific fallout. ll0 pages, the story told on one side and illustrated on the facing page. Beautiful water colors capturing the moment.... BRAVO Jim McMullan and thanks.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.A wonderful collection of short stories and pictures.
By Teen Reads
Artist and author James McMullan was born in Tsingtao, North China in 1934, where his parents managed a branch of a hand-made lace business that his grandparents had started --- the James McMullan Company. His grandparents --- members of a Protestant mission society who met and married in Yangzhou in 1887 --- moved to Yantai, where they ministered to local natives and opened a small clinic, a school and an orphanage. They started the company after teaching several girls in their orphanage to make lace.McMullan’s first memory is throwing grapes at a neighbor’s dog in his backyard. One bounced off the side of the house. The dog went after it, but so did James. He reached it just before the dog did, causing the dog to bite him in frustration. The injury resulted in 20 stitches. James was two years old at the time. This childhood memory is the first painting and text pairing in the LEAVING CHINA.The book is filled with reproductions of 50 original watercolor paintings that depict important events and milestones in McMullan’s childhood. Each painting is accompanied by text describing the incident, resulting in a wonderful collection of short stories and pictures about his childhood --- a pictorial memoir.McMullan tells about his earliest memories from China, his journey to the U.S. during WWII, his travels to Shanghai, San Francisco, Vancouver and Darjeeling. During his early childhood, McMullan was an only child who enjoyed a privileged childhood in China, complete with rickshaw rides to a private school and a family cottage overlooking the beach. But all this changed when his father joined the Allied forces at the beginning of the war. McMullan and his mother were forced from one place to another, at first trying to escape safely from the Japanese occupation of China, and then trying to find a safe refuge until the end of the war. The images and text in the book tell McMullen’s unique story in a unique way.McMullen is an internationally acclaimed illustrator as well as a New York Times bestselling author. His works have appeared in almost every national magazine as well as in a series of picture books he created with his wife, Kate McMullen.Reviewed by Christine Irvin.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.painful. He grew up during World War II
By M. Maudie
McMullan's story is fascinating, and, at times, painful. He grew up during World War II, traveled around a bit too much as a result of the war, and learned the hard way just how cruel life can sometimes be--even to children.Prior to reading this, I had no idea who James McMullan was, but I didn't think I could go wrong with this artistic memoir, and my instincts were right. The illustrations in here are thoughtful, meticulous, and evocative. There's one in here of young James staring out the window into his aunt's house next door, and I keep going back to it. McMullan’s artwork is brilliant; I had no idea that McMullan is the artist behind some of the most famous (and fabulous!) posters for the Lincoln Center Theater. He's a man with an interesting past an wonderful talent for creating beauty.
