Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

In her first novel for young readers Kadohata creates a lyrical story of two Japanese sisters growing up in Georgia in the early 60s. When one sister becomes terminally ill, the other must help herself and her family look to the future.

Katie is Japanese-American and she adores her older sister, Lynn. Their parents close their Asian food market in Iowa and must move to Georgia to find work in the chicken-processing plants there. It is a hard life. The family is poor, but “...in the way Japanese people are poor, meaning (they) never borrowed money from anyone, period.” Lynn is Katie's idol and the two girls are wonderful friends. Lynn teaches Katie all she has learned in life. Then Lynn becomes weak and ill and the family is shaken to the core.

This book was emotional for me. There were so many things that hit just right there for me. Katie was born the same year as my mom and I kept thinking about how hard things must have been for my Bachan and Jichan. They had 6 kids to raise in a time where finding good work when you were Japanese (or anything other than white) was hard. Having a sister and a brother also made things feel much more real also. But Kadohata writes so beautifully I can imagine everyone being able to relate somehow to her stories.