Kadohata, Cynthia (1956-…), is an American author known for her autobiographical fiction about Japanese American life. Kadohata’s novel Kira-Kira (2004) won the 2005 Newbery Medal. The medal is awarded annually for the best children’s book written by an American.
Kadohata set Kira-Kira during the 1950’s and early 1960’s. The central character and narrator is young Katie Takeshima, who moves with her older sister, Lynn, and their parents from a Japanese American community in Iowa to Georgia. There, Katie’s parents work in a poultry processing plant, enduring terrible working conditions. The family also experiences prejudice because of their Japanese background. Tragedy strikes the family when Lynn develops a type of cancer called lymphoma. The novel has been praised for its sensitivity, beautiful prose, and memorable characters. Kira-kira is a Japanese word that means glittering or shining.
Although Kadohata’s previous novels were not written for younger readers, the main characters were young people. Kadohata won praise for her first novel, The Floating World (1989), which also deals with Japanese American life. The story begins in the 1950’s, when Olivia, the narrator, is 12 years old. Much of the novel centers on Olivia’s observations about her family and the American world around her as her family travels from the Pacific Northwest to Arkansas, seeking work. The science-fiction novel In the Heart of the Valley of Love (1992) is a chilling story set in Los Angeles in 2052 during a time when society has deteriorated into lawlessness. The narrator is Francie, a teenager of mixed Asian and African American heritage. The Glass Mountains (1995) is a novel about a young woman named Mariska who must search for her parents after they leave their Japanese village on a peace mission.
Weedflower (2006) describes the experiences of a Japanese American girl and her family after they are transported to a camp on a Native American reservation in the Arizona desert in 1941, during World War II. Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam (2007) is narrated by a German shepherd dog who served in the Vietnam War as a scout dog. Outside Beauty (2008) tells the story of four half-sisters sent to live with their four different fathers after their mother is injured. In A Million Shades of Gray (2010), a boy growing up in modern Vietnam wants to become an elephant trainer. The Thing About Luck (2013) tells about a Japanese American girl and her younger brother who accompany their grandparents as they travel throughout the American West harvesting wheat. In Half a World Away (2014), an 11-year-old adopted boy discovers the transformative power of love when his family travels to Kazakhstan to adopt a new baby. In A Place to Belong (2019), a Japanese American child moves to Japan with her family to live with her grandparents in the years just following World War II.
Kadohata was born on July 2, 1956, in Chicago, Illinois. Her grandparents on her father’s side were born in Japan and immigrated to the United States in the early 1920’s. Her mother was born in California. While she was young, Kadohata’s family moved often to many parts of the United States. Kadohata received a B.A. degree in journalism from the University of Southern California in 1979. She began her literary career writing short stories in 1982 and sold her first story in 1986.
