Title: Kira-Kira
Author: Cynthia Kadohata
Description/hook:
Katie was six when her parents Asian foods grocery store went broke. Thats when most of her life changed.
She moved to a new city (Chesterfield, Georgia), new school and her parents had a new job working in a chicken hatchery, where the minimum wage was only a few dollars an hour. Luckily, Katie’s uncle Kutsuhisa and the small community of Japanese people were very welcoming. Katie had her very supportive, genius sister Lynn, who thought of everything as Kira-Kira; glittering, and her brother Sammy, who was always fun to play with.
But, when Lynn (katie’s sister) got very ill her mom and dad had to work extra shifts at the hatchery, and only had time to focus on her. Things got very tough in the Takeshima family. The only hope that Katie had left, was to show her family that there is always something glittering; Kira-Kira.
Recommendation: I recommend this book to boys and girls in grades 5-7 who enjoy realistic fiction, a bit of adventure and a story that will touch your heart. It is a very moving narrative about a young japanese girl who lives an extremely hard life. I think you can learn plenty of lessons from this novel and realize how lucky you are.
Where you can find this book: Kira-Kira is available in our classroom library and at chapters indigo.
