Kira-kira | Book
Or Katie, Kira-kira and Bera-bera!
A host of
endearing
characters in a not-so-engaging story line with an amazing cast of rounded and
3D’d characters who are, in a phrase, you and me, or simply we!
That in a
nutshell is the 2005-Children’s novel titled Kira-Kira by Cynthia, Cynthia Kadohata for us all!
Set in the
1950s,
the story revolves around Katie and her sister Lynn!
Father was
highly
trusting of his elder brother Uncle Katsuhisa. Says he, “If my brother says it
will make it, then it will make it.”
Added, their
father
liked to think a lot! And about him was said, ‘Once he decided something, though, he
never changed his mind’.
And their
mother
was dead against gossiping of any sorts, having nurtured in their children some
good habits for life –
Hitting someone was the worst
thing you could do. Stealing was second, and lying was third.
We were poor, but in the
way Japanese are poor, meaning we never borrowed money from anyone, period.
Lynn was known for her cheerful
disposition! Added, she jotted down her days, every day, into her little diary!
In fact, little Katie owes it all to
her sister Lynn!
As she says in her own words -
I almost never slept deeply anymore - as soon as she said my name, I always sat up immediately, no matter how tired I was.
Well, that’s to the sisterly spell on her!
That apart, even the very
opening
lines to the novel bespeaks to Lynn’s love for her younger sister Katie and how
she acts a friend, a teacher, a philosopher and a guide all rolled in one, for
her Katie!
MY SISTER, LYNN taught me my first word: kira-kira. I pronounced it ka-a-ahhh, but
she knew what I meant. Kira-kira means “glittering” in Japanese.
Lynn told me that when I was a baby, she used to take me onto our empty road at
night, where we would lie on our backs and look at the stars while she said
over and over, Katie, say kira-kira, kira-kira.
I loved that word!
When I grew older, I used kira-kira to describe everything I liked: the beautiful
blue sky, puppies, kittens, butterflies, colored Kleenex.
We lay on our backs in
the middle of the road and stared at the blue sky.
Lynn said, “The blue of the sky is one of the most special colors in the world,
because the color is deep but see-through both at the same time. What did I
just say?”
“The sky is special.”
“The ocean is like that too, and people’s eyes.”
She turned her head toward me
and waited. I said, “The ocean and people’s eyes are special too.”
The dog burst from the field suddenly, growling and snarling. Its teeth were
long and yellow. We screamed and jumped up. The dog grabbed at my pants. As I
pulled away, the dog ripped my pants and his cold teeth touched my skin.
“Aaahhhhh!” I screamed.
Lynn pulled at the dog’s tail and shouted at me, “Run, Katie, run!”
I ran, hearing the dog growling and Lynnie grunting. When I got to the house, I
turned around and saw the dog tearing at Lynn’s pants as she huddled over into
a ball.
I ran inside and looked for a weapon. I couldn’t think straight.
I got a milk bottle out of the fridge and ran toward Lynn and threw the bottle
at the dog. The bottle missed the dog and broke on the street. The dog rushed
to lap up the milk.
Lynn and I ran toward the
house, and finally she stopped on the porch. I pulled at her. “Come on!”
This is what Lynn said in her diary from that day:
The corn was so pretty. When it was all around me, I felt like I wanted to stay there
forever. Then I heard Katie crying, and I ran out as fast as I could. I was so
scared. I thought something had happened to her!
Later, when the dog
attacked me, Katie saved my life.
However, little Katie had a lovely
knack of seeing things the other way round! From a cheerful standpoint!
Says she -
I didn’t really see things that way. If she hadn’t saved my life first, I wouldn’t have
been able to save her life. So, really, she’s the one who saved a life.
That’s Katie,
formed,
framed, and fashioned by Lynn!
Like Helen
forms,
frames, and fashions Jane in Jane Eyre!
Bera-Bera was
Katie’s
favorite stuffed animal with whom she played and sang and danced with, all day
long! It was Bera-Bera who had taught her about the magic world of reflections,
as she confesses to the beginning of the story -
Bera-Bera talked to me all the time. He told me everything he did every day.
All he did was talk. He also talked to Lynn. He told her that he knew Alice
from the Through the Looking Glass book and that, like Alice, he could enter
the magic world of reflections. When you looked at a clear reflection, like in
a pond or a mirror, the reflection looked almost exactly like the real thing.
But the world of reflections was different—it was magic.
She told me that Bera-Bera had many friends in the magic world of reflections. In
his other world he was very important—maybe he was even emperor—but with me he
was just my loving, talkative friend.
Afterwards,
when they moved over to Georgia, Katie saw the world all around her had changed
and all so sudden at that!
‘Everything
started to change the winter I was ten and a half’, she says, and adds a very
critical Russell-ian or a Jidduji-ian note on the system of education in schools
-
I didn’t understand the point of school. You sat in a chair all day and read words and
added numbers and followed directions. You weren’t allowed to chew gum. You
weren’t allowed to write notes—not that I had anybody to write notes to. But,
still. And you weren’t allowed to talk unless you knew the answers to the
teacher’s questions.
Lynn actually liked reading stories and adding numbers. And she actually knew
the answers to the teacher’s questions. She was fourteen. She had gotten so
pretty that the other girls had to take notice of her, if only to be jealous.
Katie wasn’t
good
at studies, unlike Lynn who was always topper in her class!
Nevertheless, quite soon, everything
goes
for a toss in their family, when, on New Year’s Day, 1963, Lynn dies.
Katie is
stunned,
as nobody was with Lynn when she died early in the morning. So was her father.
But soon, Katie
bounces
back with double vigour, with the loveable words of Lynn for solace and
sustenance, echoing deep within her.
Lynn had taught her never to lose
hope although there might be boulders and hurdles galore ahead of her! She had
also taught her the lovely expression, ‘kira-kira’, which prompted her to look
at the world as a bright and shining place filled with love and shine!
Now, Katie resolves to be a
vibrant, proactive girl from thence on!
She supports
her
parents, who are grief-stricken, in whatever way she possibly could! She takes
care of all the household work, and things she had loathed doing once!
The moment she starts seeing the
world as kira-kira, a bright and shining place filled with love and shine, she
begins to mature into a very vibrant, chirpy, sensible and independent girl!
Finally, Katie
is
left with Lynn’s diary. In fact, Lynn had written a will, and Katie tries to
fulfill Lynn’s wish for her: to get better grades.
Says Katie -
I worked harder at school,
because that was one of Lynn’s last wishes.
It was pretty boring. I hoped Lynn wasn’t
watching me, but just in case she was, I spent a lot of time on my
homework.
The first time I got an A on
a math test, my parents were so surprised and proud, they found a frame and
hung up the test in their bedroom.
That A actually brought a bit
of life into their eyes. They mentioned it to everyone they talked to. It was
strange to see them so excited about one A, since Lynnie had gotten a zillion
of them.
Like when she was excited
about Gregg, (her boyfriend) her penmanship grew rushed and even sloppy, for
her.
I was the only person she
mentioned every single day, even if she just wrote something like, Katie got
another C today.
Her handwriting wavered toward
the end, especially at the very end.
Here is her last diary
entry:
Dear Diary,
To my parents I
leave the contents of my bank account, $5.47.
To Sammy I leave the
two one-dollar bills hidden in my top left desk drawer. I also leave him all my
toys and the candy bar in my bottom right desk drawer.
To Katie I leave my
diary, my dictionary, and my encyclopedia, which she had better use.
Signed,
Lynn Akiko
Takeshima
And quite
interestingly, a week after Lynn’s funeral she turns in a new essay at
school, as part of her class work! And this is what she writes –
Here is a special memory about my sister, Lynn.
One day in Iowa there was a
strong wind, the kind of wind that seems to go up and down and back and forth.
I could hardly see because my
hair was blowing around my face. Some of the corn blew almost flat.
Lynn and I climbed on a ladder to the top of the roof with two boxes of
Kleenex.
She said to take the Kleenex out one at the time and let the wind catch it.
In a few minutes hundred of tissue sailed over the corn field.
I held the hair out of my eyes to watch. The tissue looked like giant
butterflies.
Later we got in trouble, and our allowance was docked for the price of the Kleenex.
We had to go and pick up every single piece.
It was worth it to see the
butterflies flying over the corn.
Lynn could take a simple,
every day object like a box of Kleenex and use it to prove how amazing the
world is.
She could prove in many different ways, with Kleenex or soap of grass.
This is the main theme of
my sister’s life.
Lovely, ain’t it?
A few days
later, the family decides to go on a vacation to cheer everyone up.
Katie suggests that they go to
California as that’s where her sissy Lynn had once longed to have a dream house
by the seaside all for herself!
Once they’re in
California, Katie walks on the beach, hearing Lynn’s voice on the waves
calling, Kira-Kira, Kira-Kira.
Says Katie –
“Whoosh!” and I heard
“Kira-kira!”
My sister had taught me to
look at the world that way, as a place that glitters, as a place where the
calls of the crickets and the crows and the wind are everyday occurrences that
also happen to be magic.
And yes! after Lynn’s death, the
family had a choice!
Says Katie –
My father never
complained.
He’d realized that we had a
choice: Either we could be an unhappy family forever, or not.
Lynn had once said that our
father was the most determined man in the world. I remembered once how she and
I had seen someone act rude to our father.
Later I asked her why our
father didn’t hit the rude man.
Lynn said that he accepted
rudeness and unfairness to himself, just as he accepted hard work.
If he could have, he would have worked all the time and never slept. My father
was the most generous man in the world. I knew that without Lynn telling me
so.
If Mr. Lyndon or any other
man had come to our house feeling hungry, my father would have welcomed him and
given him the best food in our kitchen - the freshest fish, the hottest rice,
the sweetest pastries.
He would have made us be polite. He would accept anything and anyone, so long
as he could earn a living to help his family.
Amazing ain’t it folks!
Well, Kira-kira would then be a beautiful
dedication to all those loveable sisters and doting fathers out there, who’ve
made the world ‘kira-kira’ for us all – helped us look at the world out there, as a
bright and shining place filled with love and shine all of the time!
Dear gentle reader, hope thou
seest, hearest or feelest kira-kira? ;-)
If yes, then, happieee kira-kira-ing to ya! ;-)
If in doubt, happieee happieee kira-kira-ing
to ya! ;-)
image: amazondotcom