Elizabeth Gooch

Elizabeth Gooch
kira-kira 
Cynthia Kadohata
Realistic Fiction
Holiday
209

1. I am currently reading kira-kira by Cynthia Kadohata. Right now in the book I am at the part when the main character Katie's sister has died. Her name was Lynn and she was only a few years older than Katie so they were very close. Katie's mother and father are hovering over Lynn's body as Katie walks in with a look of pure terror on her face, for Katie is only a little girl going through a life changing experience. Then the morgue people come to take the body as the family is sobbing over their lost daughter and sister. Next, the mother starts searching frantically around the house looking for anything of or about Lynn. She collected newspapers of times before she died so they would always remember the recent events that were happening around the time of her death. She also went to her bathroom to collect lost pieces of hair from the floor that belonged to Lynn. This is a time of desperation for their whole family.

2. Although their are many things that I do like about this book, one of my favorite things was that the author wrote it in the younger sister Katie's point of view. I like this because since I am the older sister in my family I enjoy reading about Katie's concerns and thoughts about her older sister Lynn. I also enjoy the plot to this story because it is not something I would normally read about and it is interesting to read something from someone of a different cultures view. I can read about their customs and different ways of life. I think the author is pulling you into the book by writing about a story that most people can somewhat relate to and at the same time make no connections to the story at all. I also think she is pulling me in by having unexpected changes of events in the novel. This is a new author to me, although I'm sure I would check out any other books she has written.

3. One main theme for this book is strength. Not the physical strength but emotional strength. I would say this because Katie has to care for her older sister Lynn when she was diagnosed with her disease while her parents were both at work trying to support their family. Also Katie has to try to keep her family together after Lynn dies because her parents start to fade away and forget about their responsibilities. I think this theme mostly appears in characters because it shows up again earlier in the book when Lynn was still alive and she had to take care of Katie after school everyday until their parents got home for dinner. Overall, this theme appears in the characters throughout the book.

4. My favorite character was Lynn. I liked Lynn the most because of how much she cared for her sister Katie and always tried her best to make sure Katie turned out all right. She was always their for Katie and that was one thing I admired her for. I also like that in a way Lynn raised Katie to be the young girl she is now. And that Katie acknowledged that Lynn was her role-model and that Lynn would do anything for Katie. Lynn was my favorite character for many reasons and another one was because I could easily relate to her.

5. My least favorite character is probably Katie and Lynn's father. This is because even though he showed emotion during Lynn's death he was a pretty dull character earlier throughout the book. He was also pretty strict to his daughters, which is understandable but I think unnecessary. He would threaten to spank them if they did anything bad. Even though this was in an earlier time period where spanking might have been more common, I still don't think doing things like that is okay, even though I know he actually does love his daughters although he has a difficult time showing it.

6. I'm not exactly sure what might happen next but I think that Katie's parents might start to leave her alone more often because normally she would be with Lynn. And that Katie will start to remember her sister as the loving and carefree girl she was. Hopefully, their whole family will come together and mourn Lynn's death together although I don't think that could happen. I think this because right after Lynn's death the mother is already starting to get distracted by her mourning of Lynn by frantically searching the house for her things and kind of forgetting about Katie.