Ms. Kadohata will read excerpts from Kira-Kira, a children's novel and winner of the 2005 John Newbery Medal.
Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem kira-kira, the Japanese word for "glittering". When the Takeshima family moves from a Japanese community in Iowa to Georgia in the 1950s, it's Lynn who explains to Katie why people stop them on the street to stare. And it's Lynn who, with her special way of viewing the world, teaches Katie to look beyond tomorrow. When Lynn becomes desperately ill, and the whole family begins to fall apart, it is up to Katie to find a way to remind them all that there is always something shining in the future.