Redhead Book Review: Kira-Kira

Hey everyone!  Happy Thursday!   I haven’t done a Redhead Book review in FOREVER, so I figured I would review one of my favorite books, Kira-Kira!

In Japanese, Kira-Kira means Glittering.  But in Katie’s world, glittering is a word rarely used.  Her idol of an older sister, Lynn, is teaching her to see the world in whole new ways when she and her family move from a quite Japanese community to the depths of the south, Georgia.  Lynn has a perfect way of explaining, like why people stare at them while waling on the streets, or why the sky is so blue.  But when Lynn falls ill, the family needs Katie to find a way to make everything seems Kira-Kira in their future.

I wasn’t excited to read this book until I finished it in a day.

First of all the cover is not as beautiful as other covers, but as soon as I dived into the first chapter, I understood that it was depicting a scene from a book.  It is 244 pages long, but each one of those pages flew by.

This book is a very Sam style book.  and that is certainly saying something. There are not too many out there.  It was a beautiful mash of wonderful plot, excruciatingly painful characters that you couldn’t help feel sorry for.  Yet it was never a pity party.

Oh yes, also the romance was VERY low key.  Because there was a few crushes and boyfriends, but it wasn’t a major story piece.

Another thing to know,  this story takes place from when Katie is kindergarten age to middle school.  It flies by, and all the scenes are important or just plain humorous.

The parents were always involved, which made everything a lot more plausible.

A few of the major issues of the world were covered.

disease, racism, work ethic, role modeling, being true to yourself.

It takes place in the 50’s and 60’s

WHICH I LOVED.  It was a perfect time period for all the issues above that were covered.

The comical element was my favorite-sarcasm.

Used both by Lynn, Katie, AND adults, it was the humor that would pop up every now and then.

Katie reminded me of Ramona in Ramona and beezus.

She was Up to no good, trying to fix everything, and loving her older sister.

It was an award winner!

It won a Newberry, which was deserved.

The title was relevant to the story.

The word Kira-Kira was mentioned throughout the story, but wasn’t overused.  ‘Cause lets be real, everything isn’t glittering.

I was struck by…THE FEELS!

I was sobbing at the end, MAJOR plot twist, it was awesome, but horrible…

I can’t describe how the FEELS feel….

I pretty much have only one con:

At times, older sis Lynn was a bit awful to Katie.

Lynn was always somewhat loving to Katie, but in the middle, she seemed to value her friends over her family, and that annoyed me because Lynn is supposed to be the awesome glittering older sister!

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I give Kira Kira 5 stars!  It was an unforgettable story, and I loved Cynthia Kadohata’s writing style!

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Author:  Cynthia Kadohata

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Have you read Kira Kira?  Is there a certain style of books that you love?

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