From: Miriam Budin <miriam>
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 16:15:52 -0500

Oh good, some controversy! I've been looking forward to this.

When I first read KIRA-KIRA I thought it was nicely handled, but not necessarily distinguished. With each subsequent reading, however, I came to appreciate it more.
 It is not a splashy book, but its quietude reflects the stoicism of the Takeshima family as they face their heartrending travails. I believe Kadohata succeeds in presenting the events of the novel through the eyes of Katie. That is, she is true to the perceptions and understanding of the character as she matures and changes over the course of approximately ten years.

Of course, other books have dealt with the deaths of siblings. KIRA-KIRA seems to me to be a very particular treatment of the subject as experienced by this particular family, which makes the book "individually distinct" (one of the Newbery criteria). I am unaware of any other novels for children that discuss Japanese-American families living in the American South in the 1950's and 60's. The realistic description of the working conditions in the poultry industry and the attempts to suppress union organization provide added dimensions to the family's struggles and the time and place where they lived.

Above all, the characters' relationships, the parallels between Lynn's love for Katie and Katie's love for Sammy, and the steadfast (some might say dogged) determination of their parents to care for their children that resonates most strongly for me.

"Most distinguished" is a loaded term and the task of the Newbery Committee in determining what constitutes the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children in a given year is probably impossible to fulfill with certitude given the age range of the audience (birth to fourteen) and the range of literature under consideration. A different committee reading the same books would probably come up with a different winner. I don't think that makes any of us
"right" or "wrong"--it simply demonstrates how many different ways there are of reading, discussing, interpreting and analyzing books.

I am comfortable saying that I find KIRA-KIRA to be truly distinguished and that it is a book which reveals its secrets gently and warrants more than one reading.

Oh, and to answer a question in a previous posting, it certainly was possible to buy a cheap watch in the 50's and 60's! Timex advertised that their watches could "take a licking and keep on ticking." Watches ticked back then and Timexes were cheap.

Miriam Lang Budin Children's Librarian Chappaqua Library
---- Original Message ---------------------------------From: "Ellen Greever" Reply-To: "Ellen Greever" Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 11:07:37 00

n't get it? What makes this book a Newbery winner? What I read was an unengaging story that didn't seem to have much meat to it. The setting/time period/issues struck me as potentially interesting but under?veloped. The sister's illness and death seem to me to have been better done before (Lois Lowry's A Summer to Die, for example, and yes, I know the Committee can't look at or consider anything but this year's crop). I truly do not understand how this is the "most distinguished" book for children this year. Could someone please explain it? inion I value had the same reaction I did. Sorry not to be raving about it, but that's my reaction. Someone care to try to change my mind?
Received on Thu 17 Feb 2005 03:15:52 PM CST