A: Kira-Kira
B: Kadohata, Cynthia
D: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2004
E: Realistic Fiction, Novel, Multicultural, 2005 Newbery Medal winner
F: 5-6
G: This book starts with the main charter (Katie) being taught her first words (kira-kira) by her older sister Lynn. They are a Japanese family that is living in Iowa in the 1950’s. They own a small Japanese grocery store, but are forced to sell it and move to Georgia because they are not making enough money. When they move to Georgia, their father goes to work at a chicken hatchery and their mother goes to work at a processing plant. The working conditions at both places were horrible. The hatchery requires long hours and the processing plant did not allow bathroom breaks, so they had to wear dippers. After they have been in Georgia for a while, Katie’s parents have a son named Sammy. She became Katie’s new companion when Lynn made other friends and did not want to hang out with Katie any more. About half way through the book Lynn gets sick. The doctors do not really know what is going on, but they thing she has Anemia. One day when she was feeling better she went on a picnic with Sammy and Katie on the land of their parents boss. While they were there Sammy got his leg caught in a trap and had to be taken to the hospital. It is not long after that when Katie finds out the Lynn has Lymphoma. She dies shortly after Katie finds this out. On the day that she dies, Katie’s father goes to the house of his boss and smashes the windshield of his car to pay him back for the trap that Sammy got caught in. The book ends with the family taking a vacation to California, the place that Lynn wanted to live, but never got to see.
H: I had mixed feelings going into this book. I did not know what to expect or what would happen. I was, however, pleasantly surprised. This story is told from the first person, Katie’s point of view. This is such a realistic piece of work about the trouble faced by not only a little girl, but by a Japanese family living in a segregated south. There in one point in the book that really moved me. Katie tell us that in the restaurants there are signs that say colored in the back, the whites sat in the front, and they did not know where to sit so they always got theirs to go. This is really sad for me to read because things like this happened every day and it was accepted in society. I was not shocked by the ending however. I could see Lynn’s death coming from the first time she got sick. Her sickness still does not stop us from being able to see the struggle between siblings and how no matter how bad they treat each other, they still love each other. This would have to be my most favorites novel I have read this semester and I recommend it to everyone.
I: This would be a wonderful book for the upper elementary classrooms. I would use this book to teach civil right in the south in the ‘50s and discrimination. I also think it would be a wonderful book to teach diversity and it would allow students to see that Japanese Americans are no different than themselves. It would also be a good book to teach the writing style of first person; Katie tells us the whole story. This is a wonderful book that would be invaluable in a classroom.