Kira-Kira

Infobox Book |
name = Kira-Kira
title_orig =
translator =
author = Cynthia Kadohata
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = Atheneum Books
release_date = 2004
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 244 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-689-85639-3
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Kira-Kira" is a young adult novel by Cynthia Kadohata. It won the Newbery Medal for children's literature in 2005. The book's plot is about a Japanese-American family living in Georgia. The main character and narrator of the story is a girl named Katie, a member of the Japanese-American family."Kira-kira" means sparkling or glittering, or shiny.

Plot summary

You learn, at the beginning of the story, that Lynn taught Katie the word Kira-kira and she uses it to describe everything. Her older sister Lynn (whom she calls Lynnie), and their parents are living in Iowa and own an Asian foods store. When the store goes out of business (there are hardly any Asians in Iowa), the family moves to an apartment home in Georgia where Katie's parents can work at a hatchery with six other Japanese families. Lynnie is Katie's best friend who was known for being remarkably intelligent--she can beat her Uncle Katsuhisa, a chess grand master at his own game.

As the plot progresses, Katie enters school, earning C's throughout (which her father says stands for consistency). A new member of their family, Katie and Lynn's little brother, Sammy, is introduced, and Lynn earns a new best friend from her beauty, a popular, self-centered girly-girl named Amber, and a boy named Gregg. Katie finds that Amber is changing Lynn in a way she doesn't like.

In between, Lynn becomes sick with anemia. Amber (who Katie thought was phony anyway) dumps her as a friend, which causes the family to take out a loan and buy a house Lynn desired. The house seemed to be curing Lynn, until Sammy gets caught in a metal animal trap on Mr. Lyndon's (owner of the hatchery) vast property during a picnic one day, distressing her.

Lynn slowly progresses to become blank and irritable. Eventually Katie is told by her parents that Lynn has lymphoma. When Katie looks lymphoma up in the dictionary she discovers that Lynn could die.

The year Katie is eleven, Lynn dies, alone on New Year's day, when Katie goes outside for a break shortly after caring for her. After her death, Katie realizes why Lynn had taught her the word kira-kira, she wanted to remind her to always look at the world as a shining place and to never lose hope. One day, Katie's parents say "Let's go on a vacation" and Katie recommends California because Lynn always wanted to go to California. The family arrives and while Katie lay on the beach, she could hear Lynn's voice in the wind "kira-kira, kira-kira".