Hi! This is Rachel Malay, director at the Port Library in Beloit. Recently the library has received several 2014 Kansas Notable Book award winners through a grant from the State Library. This week’s review and next week’s selection feature the two titles selected for younger readers. Library patrons may find these and the other 2014 Kansas Notable Books in the Kansas and Genealogy room in the coming months.
What’s your belief about luck? Is there such a thing as bad luck, good luck, and can you influence it? Author Cynthia Kadohata tries to answer in her book The Thing About Luck. For 12 year old Summer, her family is definitely experiencing a year of bad luck. Summer’s parents are called back to their home country of Japan to care for ailing relatives, leaving Summer and her younger brother Jaz with their Japanese grandparents. To keep a steady income, the family picks up work with custom harvesters working in Kansas. Summer’s grandpa will work with the harvesters, while Summer and her grandmother will cook. Jaz has special needs – Summer describes him as “intense” – and the whole family pitches in to help him along. Then a crisis in the family forces Summer to make some difficult decisions that will hopefully turn their luck around. The story line only takes place over 3 months of the harvesting season, and readers used to action books may find the pace a bit slow. However, even adults in the Midwest will enjoy this tale of growing up around the wheat harvest.
You can get the book reviewed here and more great titles to watch, read, listen to, or play with at the Port Library at 1718 N. Hersey in Beloit. This is director Rachel Malay, saying “Thanks for checking us out!”
The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kahodata
ISBN: 9781442474659, 269 pages.
Kansas Collection, fiction
What’s your belief about luck? Is there such a thing as bad luck, good luck, and can you influence it? Author Cynthia Kadohata tries to answer in her book The Thing About Luck. For 12 year old Summer, her family is definitely experiencing a year of bad luck. Summer’s parents are called back to their home country of Japan to care for ailing relatives, leaving Summer and her younger brother Jaz with their Japanese grandparents. To keep a steady income, the family picks up work with custom harvesters working in Kansas. Summer’s grandpa will work with the harvesters, while Summer and her grandmother will cook. Jaz has special needs – Summer describes him as “intense” – and the whole family pitches in to help him along. Then a crisis in the family forces Summer to make some difficult decisions that will hopefully turn their luck around. The story line only takes place over 3 months of the harvesting season, and readers used to action books may find the pace a bit slow. However, even adults in the Midwest will enjoy this tale of growing up around the wheat harvest.
You can get the book reviewed here and more great titles to watch, read, listen to, or play with at the Port Library at 1718 N. Hersey in Beloit. This is director Rachel Malay, saying “Thanks for checking us out!”
The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kahodata
ISBN: 9781442474659, 269 pages.
Kansas Collection, fiction
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