18 Feb / Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata + Author Interview [in AsianWeek]
The Best Wake-up Call of All
Calls coming in at 4:26 a.m. don’t usually make most people just jump up and down and scream for joy. But Cynthia Kadohata, still half-asleep in her Los Angeles home, had the best shock of her life on Jan. 17, when she heard that she had won the coveted 2005 John Newbery Medal. In layman’s terms, that’s the absolute highest honor for children’s literature.
Amazingly, Kira-Kira is Kadohata’s first foray into the children’s literary market. After three adult titles – most notably the lyrical, critically acclaimed The Floating World – Kadohata was nudged into children’s literature by her editor, who also happens to be her graduate school roommate. “She had been trying to get me to write a children’s book for a while, because she said she had a strong feeling that it would turn out well,” Kadohata says. “Then several years ago, I was newly divorced, kind of sad, and very broke, and I was really open to trying a new direction.”
The result, Kira-Kira, refers to a Japanese phrase that means “glittering, shining.” And for the book’s not-yet-12-year-old Katie Takeshima, it is her older sister, Lynn, who helps her see the magic of their lives as they face the harshness of growing up in 1950s small-town Georgia. When Lynn falls mysteriously ill, Katie must learn to find all that is shining and good in her life, both for herself and those around her.
AsianWeek: So what did you do when you got the news?
Cynthia Kadohata: I felt total shock and incredible joy. My editor somehow already knew, and she called within two minutes of my hanging up. We screamed and jumped for joy together. Then she told me I had to get on a plane right away to be on the Today show the next morning. I said, ‘No way, I have to get my hair cut, I have to get winter shoes!’ At the airport, (my boyfriend) George and I went to the wrong line, and we missed the flight. We finally ended up in the hotel room at 2 a.m., with a car coming at 8 in the morning to do the show.
AW: And how was the Today show?
CK: The Today show was fun. I giggled too much and had too much makeup on and couldn’t think of anything to say. New York was cold. I was wearing new shoes, and New Yorkers walk everywhere, and I felt like I was having some kind of Arctic adventure with really sore feet. …[click here for more]
Author interview: “The Best Wake-up Call of All,” AsianWeek, February 18, 2005
Tidbit: Soon after she won the esteemed Newbery Medal for Kira-Kira in 2005, Cynthia Kadohata was a delightful guest at her very own public program, “The Twinkling, Sparkling Writing Life: 2005 Newbery Award Winner Cynthia Kadohata,” at the National Museum of American History hosted by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program on April 10, 2005.
Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult
Published: 2004