Dust particles swirl above my light brown hair. I’m basking in sunlight spilling in from an airplane window. There’s a wide-angle shot of nine-year-old me reading Kira-Kira. It’s in the movie I keep playing over and over in my head, the movie I can’t change or turn off. When I think of Kira-Kira today, I think of it like a movie prop. Sometimes it’s a theme or motif to pay closer attention to. When you see a character in a film reading a book, it usually means something. People like her and Lynn, didn’t get better. I was nine years old, but I had seen the scars on my sister’s chest and stomach. I realized this for the first time while reading Kira-Kira on the plane that day. I’ve always felt more comfortable crying in front of strangers. I was glad my mom was two rows behind and wouldn’t see me cry. I clenched my teeth and tried to stop the sadness. “You’re crying, honey.” Tears glided down my cheeks. I started to read.Īn hour into reading, the woman asked me if I was okay. Light from the window in our row pooled into my lap. From my backpack, I pulled out my own book. The woman next to me had a stack of papers on the tray table in front of her.
Thick beams of sunlight cut across the aisles, illuminating the interior of the plane. My mom sat two rows behind me by window A. It was my first time flying across the country. My mom and I were on a flight from Seattle to New York. I notice that many of my friends who have read Kira-Kira become immediately emotional at its mention. I wrote about how your book Kira-Kira affected me as kid, how it affects me now. Kira-Kira raises this mix to a level of highest art. “ Kira-Kira is heartbreaking, brilliant, and might as easily be read by a 41-year-old as a 14-year-old …in works of literature for the young, the tragic and the comic forever travel hand in hand. And my 11-year-old was so entranced that she finished the book in a single sitting.” ( Entertainment Weekly) “Kadohata’s spare, lovely images stayed in my head long after I turned the last page. Over the years, I’ve read many thousands of reviews posted at BookBrowse, and those that have been written by students for school projects run the gamut from positive to negative, but more often than not they tend towards the vitriolic or just plain bored…” ( Bookbrowse) “It is particularly interesting to note how glowingly positive these reviews are considering that most of the reviewers read Kira-Kira as a school assignment. The prose is clear, simple and authentic and, most importantly, is clearly touching the hearts of young readers as you can see by the reader reviews posted at BookBrowse … “This is a heartbreaking, gorgeous book written from the point of view of young Katie, who is only 10 when her 14 year old sister falls sick and dies. Pacific Northwest Young Reader’s Choice Award Master List
Asian/Pacific American Award for LiteratureĬooperative Children’s Book Council Choicesĭorothy Canfield Fisher Award master (VT)
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