Kira Kira

Kira-Kira

Today I would like to talk about a book called “Kira-Kira” by Cynthia Kadohata. This book describes the childhood of an American Japanese girl, Katie, and her close relationship with her older sister, Lynn.

Katie’s family lived in a small town in Iowa. Her parents run an oriental grocery store, which later on went out of business. The family then moved to Georgia where her parents found jobs in a hatchery factory.  The southern state of Georgia in the 1950’s was not a welcoming place for asian immigrants, and Katie’s family faced a lot of hardships in this new environment, especially after they got a new baby brother : Both of Katie’s parents need to work extreme hours in very harsh conditions to make ends meet and to save money for buying a house. Katie’s dad needed to work two jobs which took up about 90 hours a week and her mom worked overtime in order to earn extra money. Both her parents also faced harsh conditions: her dad sometimes only got 4 hours of sleep at night, and her mom was forced to wear pads, since there is no bathroom breaks at work. Because they both worked long hours, Katie and her siblings hardly ever saw their parents. They also needed to fit into a discriminational environment. Just when life gradually getting better, Katie’s sister Lynn got seriously ill with lymphoma and anemia, which caused chaos in the family. Sadly, Lynn eventually passed away. When the family was struggling and fighting with all these unfortunates of life, caring  for each other helped to hold the family from falling apart.

This book has a relatively simple storyline but the author presented it in a very natural and touching way. The story was told in the perspective of Katie. Readers can easily be brought into the plot, experiencing Katie’s life and sharing her feelings.

Katie is a very easy going kid who just wants to follow the flow of life. Imagining herself doing the same tedious hatchery job as her parents did, she never took school seriously and got straight Cs.  Lynn on the other hand had a totally different personality. She had big dreams for life and was a straight A student. Lynn was also very considerate. She saved every penny for  her mom’s house fund, and dreamed to buy 7 houses for her family when she grew up. When Katie was little, Lynn was most intimate to her and took good care of her. As Lynn getting older and starting to have her own friend circle, Katie felt Lynn was gradually drifted away from her. As a little girl, Katie could not fully understand all the changes to Lynn and her family. There are some moments when conflicts happens between the sisters, but Katie always deeply loved Lynn: she tried her best to take care of her when Lynn was sick, she fought with the girl who hurt Lynn’s feelings, and  she even stole nail polish from store just to make Lynn happy. She changed to be more serious at school and tried to be more responsible for her family as she promised to Lynn before Lynn died. 

kira-kira means shiny or glittery in Japanese, but in the story it was used to define special and a little magical.