Kira-Kira
Kadohata, Cynthia. (2004). Kira-Kira. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.
This picture was obtained from: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/89731.Kira_Kira
“Uncle, what’s wrong with me?” I sobbed some more. “How come I said I hated her?”
- Page 221 of Kira-Kira
A Little about the Book:
Kira-Kira won the Newberry Medal in 2005.
Kira-Kira is a heart-touching novel about Katie, a Japanese-American girl who works hard to make her family happy, and successful. Katie is faced with various life struggles and hardships. To start with Katie’s family moves from Iowa to Georgia. In Georgia, there are only 31 Japanese-American families which results in poor treatment of Japanese-Americans. Katie’s parents work long hours at Chicken factories to save up for a house for the family.
When Lynn, Katie’s closest friend and older sister, becomes very ill Katie’s parents begin working longer hours to pay for the medical bills and the house mortgage. Katie is left watching her younger brother, Sam, and tending to her sister Lynn. Katie struggles with balancing the love she has for her sister and how hard it is to tend to her sister’s every need and want. Although all Katie wants is to make her sister happy, she sometimes hates her sister because she is so demanding. Although Katie tries her hardest to make everyone happy, she learns some battles cannot be won.
Themes:
· love
· family
· death
Age Level:
Kira-Kira is appropriate for children who are eleven years and older. Although it does talk about illness and death, so children should be mature enough to handle these topics.
Children in Grade 5 and 6 should be able to read Kira-Kira by themselves with little trouble.
Personal Response:
I enjoyed Kira-Kira. Cynthia Kadohata’s story Kira-Kira reminds me of my favourite author when I was a preteen, Lurlene McDaniel. The story introduces children to cancer and the hardships, which it can have on a family. I felt the story was not extremely sad, and at times felt like Kadohata could have added more emotion to her writing. Although from a kid’s perspective, the story may have enough emotion. Too much emotion may make the story unappealing and hard for children to connect with.
My favourite part of Kira-Kira was when we see the toll Lynn’s cancer is taking on Katie. For me I could connect to this part because I was Katie once. My brother had cancer when I was younger, and the emotional toll on the younger siblings is hard. At one point you want to hate them but at the next point you hate yourself for every hating them because they mean the world to you.
Teacher Ideas:
Health
After reading Kira-Kira, have the children talk about cancer. Ask students question such as:
- Who does cancer affect?
- How does cancer affect a family?
Once students have answered the questions assign a group of students a kid of cancer and have them research the cancer. Have them pay attention to how the cancer affects the victim, and how cancer could affect the families. Also have students research what they can do to help prevent getting cancer.
Classroom Project
As a class fundraise money to donate to an association which helps families who a child with cancer. Allow the students to take ownership of the project, and decide which association they are going to donate to and methods they are going to use to fundraise money. Have students come up with methods to advertise, and record the amount of donations they have received.
Listen to Some of Kira-Kira here:
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