March Read\Lydia

Title : kira-kira

Author : Cynthia Kadohata

Number of Pages : 244

ISBN : 0-689-85639-3

The title “kira-kira” means “glittering” or “shining” in Japanese. This story is about a Japanese immigrant family in the mid 1900’s. Katie learned this word “kira-kira” from her elder sister, Lynn, who died in teen-age because of lymphoid disease. They used this word to describe everything they liked. Katie followed Lynn and believed Lynn was always right and knew everything about world. Lynn was Katie’s hero.

I could see how much this family loved each other though they suffered from poverty and loss of family member in this book. Katie’s parents loved their children very much but couldn’t have time for them. They always worked very hard in the poultry factory and came home only to sleep. This was very sad to me, they knew their daughter might die, but could not stay with her. They had to pay Lynn’s medical bills and a mortgage for own small house, that they had bought in haste for their sick daughter.

This story also showed some bad conditions of inferior labors in the mid 1900’s. Katie’s parents worked seven days a week. The factory didn’t give days off with pay for grief leave like if a family member dies. Even I was shocked Katie’s mom used a pad in poultry factory because the factory didn’t allowed a break for bathroom in working hour.

Their children Lynn, Katie and Sammy also loved and understood their parents. They all took care of one another instead of their parents. Lynn took care of Katie and Katie took care of her brother, Sammy. They saved a small money to help their parents and Katie stole a pink nail polish in a store for her sister. They did what they could for their parents and siblings. When Lynn first died, her parents and Katie was in the deep of sadness. They became like zombies. They couldn’t feel joy. But Katie thought that Lynn’s sprit would be very unhappy if she saw her family crying. She remembered Lynn’s last wishes. Katie promised to Lynn to work harder at school, go to college and take care of her parents and Sammy. Katie tried to keep the promise and changed herself. Her parents felt Katie’s change and began to laugh little by little. Now Katie had her special way of viewing the world that her sister had taught her.