BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSKatie Takeshima grows up in a Japanese American family in 1950s Georgia, where her older sister Lynn is the center of her world. Lynn teaches Katie that word "kira-kira," meaning "glittering," and uses it to find wonder in everything from the night sky to a box of Kleenex flying over a cornfield. When the family moves south from Iowa so their father can work as a chicken sexer and their mother can work in a poultry processing plant, the girls share a small apartment with the other Japanese families in town, studying the stars, saving nickels toward a house, and dreaming of someday living by the sea in California. Then, slowly, Lynn begins to get sick, and what seems like ordinary fatigue starts to pull the two sisters apart in ways Katie cannot yet understand.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Kira-Kira
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about Kira-Kira. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a girl throw a milk bottle at an attacking dog to save her sister?
✓ Answer
Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
When the dog attacks Lynn on the road, Katie grabs a milk bottle from the fridge. It breaks on the pavement, the dog stops to lap up the milk, and Lynn then sprays it away with the garden hose.
- First half
In what book does a sister wake up crying after dreaming only her spirit swam in the ocean?
✓ Answer
Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
Soon after the dodgeball incident, Lynn dreams of swimming happily in the ocean and wakes in tears because it was only her spirit, not really her. The dream haunts Katie even though she does not understand it.
- First half
In what book does a girl climb a garbage can to spy through a poultry plant window?
✓ Answer
Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
Curious about her mother's work, Katie sets up a garbage can outside the chicken plant and stands on her tiptoes to peer through a high window. She watches her tiny mother slice drumsticks until the can collapses under her.
- Second half
In what book does a family pick out a sky blue house with a magnolia in the next yard?
✓ Answer
Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
After the bank approves their loan, Lynn picks out a small sky blue house because Katie had once told her she wanted their first house to be that color. A big magnolia in the neighbor's yard becomes the prized view from the alcove.
- Second half
In what book does a power outage during a tornado warning threaten the unborn chicks?
✓ Answer
Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
A storm knocks out the power and the backup generator fails. The hatchery manager calls Mr. Lyndon, who arranges for a man to come fix the generator with a sheriff's escort in the middle of the night.
- Near the end
In what book does the narrator fall out of a moving truck door without anyone noticing?
✓ Answer
Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
On the way to the campsite, the loose passenger door pops open as the truck rounds a corner and Katie tumbles out onto the rocky roadside. She has to scream for the truck to come back, and her uncle bribes her with candy not to tell.
