While I am not photographing beautiful humans, I am a classroom teacher. I first started reading my classroom book club books in preparation for my lessons, though now I find myself carrying home these award winning novels for my own enjoyment. These novels are not just kid books, but classic literature and Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata is a perfect model of this.
Kira-Kira is the story of a Japanese family and spans of their life in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This novel tells the story of a bond between two sisters and the struggles of their family.
In addition two the story of two sisters, the author details how hard the parents worked to provide a home for their family and the disgraceful treatment of Japanese Americans during this era.
In the book, the parents work many hours and often seem to barely see their children because of their low pay. It was difficult to read as a parent, both because I was upset that they were missing precious moments with their children, but also because I understood they were working to provide the best they possibly could for their family.
In Japanese, kira-kira means glittering. I learned from this book though that kira-kira is not just glittering, but the way some colors are not just deep, but see through at the same like; the sky, the ocean and people’s eyes.
Now, whenever I see this glittering, I think, kira-kira.
My playlist while writing this post included tacks from:
