south Hillsborough Library
south Hillsborough Library
Few American authors have have had Cynthia Kadohata’s success. She has won the Newbery Medal for Kira-Kira and the National Book Award for The Thing About Luck. Ms. Kadohata visited to South School on February 7th, and she shared with fourth and fifth graders how her real life is mixed up in her books. Her brand new novel, Checked, focuses on the world of competitive youth hockey, and her son is a competitive hockey player! Ms. Kadohata explained that her son became passionate at 8 1/2 about hockey and shared how elements of the fictional boys in the story are modeled on her son and her hockey experiences with her son. She also played videos of a hockey game so students could understand the speed of the game and the passion with which the boys play. She says the story shows how chasing your sports dreams can be a ton of hard work, from working out constantly, eating right, spending money on lessons, and traveling with an elite team. However, Ms. Kadohata is a believer in working hard to catch your dreams.
Ms. Kadohata also shared information about her Japanese ancestry, her parents, her life growing up, and the research she does for her books. She recounted how her father was sent to an internment camp and how he eventually got a job in Arkansas as a chicken sexer. Her book Weedflower is set in an internment camp, and Kira-Kira is about two sisters whose father is a chicken sexer. It was fascinating to hear that her father never read any of her books; he just didn’t have time with a 100 hour work week. Her mother was the reader who lived the life of the mind.
Finally, Ms. Kadohata talked about her upcoming book that will be released in 2020. Like Weedflower, it will again be set in a Japanese internment camp, but this time it will focus on the Japanese who protested their internment. These Japanese said they would fight for the U.S. in WWII only if they received their civil rights back. Their volatile comments and protests led to beatings, suicides, and murders in some internment camps. It sounds like another fascinating, engrossing, and powerful book from a master storyteller.
Cynthia Kadohata--One of America's Most Decorated Authors
Saturday, February 17, 2018