日本でいえば、昭和30年代。
その頃のアメリカ南部での日系米人の働きぶり。
奴隷制度のあった国は、こういう働かせ方をして平気なんだな。
差別は、無視という形をとるのか。
と、そんな大人視点で読むこともできる。
「叩かない」、「嘘をつかない」、「盗まない」、
この3つのルールを全部破ってしまう主人公の少女。
愛する姉を失っても、家族を思い、自分や家族を立て直そうと、
黙々と努力する少女の前向きな姿は、明るい未来を予想させる。
きらきら、きらきら。輝く本でした。
多読用に購入。英語は素直で、文字も大きめ。
難しい単語はなく、辞書もほぼ不要です。
日本でいえば、小学校6年生の夏休みの推薦図書レベルでしょうか。
無料のKindleアプリをダウンロードして、スマートフォン、タブレット、またはコンピューターで今すぐKindle本を読むことができます。Kindleデバイスは必要ありません。
ウェブ版Kindleなら、お使いのブラウザですぐにお読みいただけます。
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サンプル サンプル
Kira-Kira (Newbery Medal Book) ハードカバー – 2004/2/1
英語版
Cynthia Kadohata
(著)
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A Japanese-American family struggles to build a new life in the Deep South of Georgia in this luminous novel, winner of the Newbery Medal.
kira-kira (kee' ra kee' ra): glittering; shining
Glittering. That's how Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira for the same reason. And so are people's eyes. When Katie and her family move from a Japanese community in Iowa to the Deep South of Georgia, it's Lynn who explains to her why people stop them on the street to stare. And it's Lynn who, with her special way of viewing the world, teaches Katie to look beyond tomorrow. But when Lynn becomes desperately ill, and the whole family begins to fall apart, it is up to Katie to find a way to remind them all that there is always something glittering -- kira-kira -- in the future.
Luminous in its persistence of love and hope, Kira-Kira is Cynthia Kadohata's stunning debut in middle-grade fiction.
kira-kira (kee' ra kee' ra): glittering; shining
Glittering. That's how Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira for the same reason. And so are people's eyes. When Katie and her family move from a Japanese community in Iowa to the Deep South of Georgia, it's Lynn who explains to her why people stop them on the street to stare. And it's Lynn who, with her special way of viewing the world, teaches Katie to look beyond tomorrow. But when Lynn becomes desperately ill, and the whole family begins to fall apart, it is up to Katie to find a way to remind them all that there is always something glittering -- kira-kira -- in the future.
Luminous in its persistence of love and hope, Kira-Kira is Cynthia Kadohata's stunning debut in middle-grade fiction.
- 対象読者年齢10 ~ 14 歳
- 本の長さ256ページ
- 言語英語
- 対象5 - 9
- Lexile指数740L
- 寸法12.7 x 2.29 x 18.42 cm
- 出版社Atheneum Books for Young Readers
- 発売日2004/2/1
- ISBN-100689856393
- ISBN-13978-0689856396
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内容説明
シンシア・カドハタの美しくユーモアがありながらも涙を誘うこの小説は、2005年の「ニューベリー・メダル」を受賞した。1950年代に日系アメリカ人のタケシマ家がアイオワからジョージアへと移動する物語である。語り手のケイティはまだ幼稚園に通う少女だ。両親は家畜や苗や卵の生産に携わりながらひどい状況と信じられないような月日を耐えていた。けれども、彼らはリン、ケイティ、サミーの3人の子供たちのために、なんとかして愛情のある安定した家庭を作ろうと努力していた。ケイティが信頼し憧れている姉のリンは、アドバイスの達人で、一見うまく教えられないような状況でもけっして引っ込めたりするような少女ではなかった。リンはケイティに、どうして空や海や人々の目はみな特別なのかということから、人種的偏見の不公平さまでのすべてを教えた。二人の少女はいつの日か家族のために家を買うことを夢見ており、お菓子のためにもらったお小遣いをすでに100ドルも貯めている。「サイラス・マーナーの本は大のお気に入り。私たちは根っからの資本主義者で、サイラスが床の下に大事なものはすべてを隠し持っていたという話が好きだった」。しかし、リンのリンパ腫が発見されると、物語は悲痛なものへと変わる。そして、悪化していく彼女の病気を通してケイティは、リンの人生に対する「キラキラ」した見方を思い出そうと全力を尽くすのである。この胸を打つ物語のなかではちょっとした瞬間が最高に輝いている。ケイティの生き生きとした誠実な声は、美しく情熱的に物語を語っている。
レビュー
"An unforgettable story."
-- "San Diego Union-Tribune"
"This novel shine[s]."
-- "Publishers Weekly, " starred review
"Will speak to readers who have lost someone they love or fear that they could."
-- "Booklist, " starred review
抜粋
Chapter 1
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.
My mother said we were misusing the word; you could not call a Kleenex kira-kira. She was dismayed over how un-Japanese we were and vowed to send us to Japan one day. I didn't care where she sent me, so long as Lynn came along.
I was born in Iowa in 1951. I know a lot about when I was a little girl, because my sister used to keep a diary. Today I keep her diary in a drawer next to my bed.
I like to see how her memories were the same as mine, but also different. For instance, one of my earliest memories is the day Lynn saved my life. I was almost five, and she was almost nine. We were playing on the empty road near our house. Fields of tall corn stretched into the distance wherever you looked. A dirty gray dog ran out of the field near us, and then he ran back in. Lynn loved animals. Her long black hair disappeared into the corn as she chased the dog. The summer sky was clear and blue. I felt a brief fear as Lynn disappeared into the cornstalks. When she wasn't in school, she stayed with me constantly. Both our parents worked. Officially, I stayed all day with a lady from down the road, but unofficially, Lynn was the one who took care of me.
After Lynn ran into the field, I couldn't see anything but corn.
"Lynnie!" I shouted. We weren't that far from our house, but I felt scared. I burst into tears.
Somehow or other, Lynn got behind me and said, "Boo!" and I cried some more. She just laughed and hugged me and said, "You're the best little sister in the world!" I liked it when she said that, so I stopped crying.
The dog ran off. We lay on our backs in the middle of the road and stared at the blue sky. Some days nobody at all drove down our little road. We could have lain on our backs all day and never got hit.
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."
That's how I learned about eyes, sky, and ocean: the three special, deep, colored, see-through things. I turned to Lynnie. Her eyes were deep and black, like mine.
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, but she stopped on the porch. I pulled at her. "Come on!"
She looked worried. "He's going to cut his tongue on the glass."
"Who cares?"
But she got the water hose and chased the dog away with the water, so it wouldn't hurt its tongue. That's the way Lynn was. Even if you tried to kill her and bite off her leg, she still forgave you.
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.
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.
Lynn was the bravest girl in the world. She was also a genius. I knew this because one day I asked her, "Are you a genius?" And she said, "Yes." I believed her because the day my father taught her how to play chess, she won her first game. She said she would teach me how to play if I wanted. She always said she would teach me everything in the world I needed to know. She said we would be rich someday and buy our parents seven houses. But first they would buy a house for all of us. That wonderful day was not far off. I found this out one afternoon when Lynn pulled me into the kitchen, her eyes shining. "I have to show you something," she said.
She reached under the refrigerator and pulled out a tray. A worn envelope sat inside. She opened the envelope up and showed me what was inside: cash.
"Is that real?" I said.
"Uh-huh. It belongs to Mom and Dad. It's for our house we're going to buy."
We lived in a little rented house in Iowa. I liked our little rented house, but Lynn always told me I would love our very own house. Then we could get a dog, a cat, and a parakeet.
Lynn looked at me expectantly. I said, "Doesn't money belong in a bank?"
"They don't trust the bank. Do you want to count it?"
She handed me the envelope, and I took the money in my hands. It felt damp and cool. "One, two, three..." I counted to eleven. Eleven hundred-dollar bills. I wasn't sure what to think. I found a dollar once in a parking lot. I bought a lot of stuff with that. With eleven hundred dollars, it seemed you could buy anything. "I hope our house is painted sky blue," I said.
"It will be." She put the money back. "They think it's hidden, but I saw Mom take it out."
Our parents owned a small Oriental foods grocery store. Unfortunately, there were hardly any Oriental people in Iowa, and the store went out of business shortly after Lynn and I first counted the money under the refrigerator. My father's brother, my uncle Katsuhisa, worked in a poultry hatchery in Georgia. He said he could get my father a job at the hatchery. And, he said, he could get my mother a job working in a poultry processing factory. A few weeks after the store went out of business, my father decided to take us down to Georgia to join the poultry industry.
So we owed Uncle Katsuhisa a big favor for helping us. Katsu means "triumph" in Japanese. For some reason I always thought "triumph" and "trumpet" were the same thing, and I thought of my uncle as a trumpet.
Lynn said Uncle Katsuhisa was an odd fish. He was as loud as my father was quiet. Even when he wasn't talking, he made a lot of noise, clearing his throat and sniffing and tapping his fingers. Sometimes, for no reason that I could see, he would suddenly stand up and clap his hands together really loudly. After he got everyone's attention, he would just sit down again. He even made noise when he was thinking. When he was deep in thought, he had a way of turning his ears inside out so they looked kind of deformed. The ears would make a popping sound when they came undone. Lynn said you could hear him thinking: Pop! Pop!
A buttonlike scar marked one side of Uncle Katsuhisa's nose. The story was that when he was a boy in Japan, he was attacked by giant crows, one of which tried to steal his nose. He, my father, and my mother were Kibei, which meant they were born in the United States but were sent to Japan for their education. The crows of Japan are famous for being mean. Anyway, that was the story Lynn told me.
It was a sweltering day when Uncle Katsuhisa arrived in Iowa to help us move to Georgia. We all ran outside when we heard his truck on our lonely road. His truck jerked and sputtered and was generally as noisy as he was. My mother said, "Will that truck make it all the way to Georgia?"
My father hit his chest with his fist. That's what he did whenever he wanted to say, Definitely! He added, "He's my brother." Our father was solid and tall, six feet, and our mother was delicate and tiny, four feet ten. As tiny as she was, she scared us when she got mad. Her soft face turned hard and glasslike, as if it could break into pieces if something hit it.
As my parents watched Uncle's truck my father reached both of his arms around my mother, enveloping her. He stood with her like that a lot, as if protecting her.
"But his being your brother has nothing to do with whether the truck will make it all the way to Georgia," my mother said.
My father said, "If my brother says it will make it, then it will make it." He didn't seem to have a doubt in the world. His brother was four years older than he was. Maybe he trusted Uncle Katsuhisa the way I trusted Lynn. Lynn whispered to me, "Frankly, I wonder whether the truck will make it all the way up the road to our house, let alone to Georgia." "Frankly" was her favorite word that week.
Our mother looked at us suspiciously. She didn't like it when we whispered. She thought that meant we were gossiping, and she was against gossiping. She focused on me. She was trying to read my mind. Lynn said whenever our mother did that, I should try to think nonsense words in my head. I thought to myself, Elephant, cow, moo, koo, doo. Elephant...My mother turned back around, to watch the truck.
When the truck finally rumbled up, Uncle Katsuhisa jumped out and immediately ran toward Lynn and me. I stepped back, but he swooped me up in his arms and shouted, "My little palomino pony! That's what you are!" He twirled me around until I felt dizzy. Then he set me down and picked up Lynn and twirled her around and said, "My little wolfie girl!"
He set Lynn down and hugged my father hard. He hugged my mother delicately. While Uncle hugged my mother, she turned her face away a bit, as if his loudness made her feel faint.
It was hard to see how my father and Uncle Katsuhisa could be related. My father was mild, like the sea on a windless day, with an unruffled surface and little variation. He was as hard as the wall in our bedroom. Just to prove how strong he was, he used to let us hit him in the stomach as hard as we could. Some days we would sneak up on him and punch him in the stomach, and he never even noticed. We would sneak away while he kept listening to the radio as if nothing had happened.
My father liked to think. Sometimes Lynn and I would peek at him as he sat at the kitchen table, thinking. His hands would be folded on the table, and he would be frowning at nothing. Sometimes he would nod, but only slightly. I knew I would never be a thinker like my father, because I couldn't sit that still. Lynn said he thought so much that sometimes weeks or even months passed before he made a decision. Once he decided something, though, he never changed his mind. He'd thought many weeks before deciding to move us to Georgia. By the time he decided, there was only six hundred dollars in cash left in the envelope under the refrigerator.
The night Uncle Katsuhisa arrived in Iowa, he left the dinner table early so he could go out and take a walk and maybe talk to himself. After the front door closed, my mother said that Uncle Katsuhisa was the opposite of my father in that he didn't look before he leapt, didn't think at all before he made decisions. She lowered her voice and said, "That's why he married that woman," meaning his first wife. Strictly speaking, Mom was gossiping, but who was going to tell her? We all sat silently.
My father and uncle were different in other ways. Uncle Katsuhisa liked to talk to anyone, even to himself. My father didn't like to talk, except to my mother. He preferred to read the newspaper. My uncle, on the other hand, never read the paper. He did not give a hoot what President Eisenhower had to say.
My uncle was exactly one inch taller than my father. But his stomach was soft. We knew this because we hit him in it once the year before, and he yelped in pain and threatened to spank us. We got sent to bed without supper because my parents said hitting someone was the worst thing you could do. Stealing was second, and lying was third.
Before I was twelve, I would have committed all three of those crimes.
Copyright &169; 2004 by Cynthia Kadohata
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.
My mother said we were misusing the word; you could not call a Kleenex kira-kira. She was dismayed over how un-Japanese we were and vowed to send us to Japan one day. I didn't care where she sent me, so long as Lynn came along.
I was born in Iowa in 1951. I know a lot about when I was a little girl, because my sister used to keep a diary. Today I keep her diary in a drawer next to my bed.
I like to see how her memories were the same as mine, but also different. For instance, one of my earliest memories is the day Lynn saved my life. I was almost five, and she was almost nine. We were playing on the empty road near our house. Fields of tall corn stretched into the distance wherever you looked. A dirty gray dog ran out of the field near us, and then he ran back in. Lynn loved animals. Her long black hair disappeared into the corn as she chased the dog. The summer sky was clear and blue. I felt a brief fear as Lynn disappeared into the cornstalks. When she wasn't in school, she stayed with me constantly. Both our parents worked. Officially, I stayed all day with a lady from down the road, but unofficially, Lynn was the one who took care of me.
After Lynn ran into the field, I couldn't see anything but corn.
"Lynnie!" I shouted. We weren't that far from our house, but I felt scared. I burst into tears.
Somehow or other, Lynn got behind me and said, "Boo!" and I cried some more. She just laughed and hugged me and said, "You're the best little sister in the world!" I liked it when she said that, so I stopped crying.
The dog ran off. We lay on our backs in the middle of the road and stared at the blue sky. Some days nobody at all drove down our little road. We could have lain on our backs all day and never got hit.
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."
That's how I learned about eyes, sky, and ocean: the three special, deep, colored, see-through things. I turned to Lynnie. Her eyes were deep and black, like mine.
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, but she stopped on the porch. I pulled at her. "Come on!"
She looked worried. "He's going to cut his tongue on the glass."
"Who cares?"
But she got the water hose and chased the dog away with the water, so it wouldn't hurt its tongue. That's the way Lynn was. Even if you tried to kill her and bite off her leg, she still forgave you.
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.
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.
Lynn was the bravest girl in the world. She was also a genius. I knew this because one day I asked her, "Are you a genius?" And she said, "Yes." I believed her because the day my father taught her how to play chess, she won her first game. She said she would teach me how to play if I wanted. She always said she would teach me everything in the world I needed to know. She said we would be rich someday and buy our parents seven houses. But first they would buy a house for all of us. That wonderful day was not far off. I found this out one afternoon when Lynn pulled me into the kitchen, her eyes shining. "I have to show you something," she said.
She reached under the refrigerator and pulled out a tray. A worn envelope sat inside. She opened the envelope up and showed me what was inside: cash.
"Is that real?" I said.
"Uh-huh. It belongs to Mom and Dad. It's for our house we're going to buy."
We lived in a little rented house in Iowa. I liked our little rented house, but Lynn always told me I would love our very own house. Then we could get a dog, a cat, and a parakeet.
Lynn looked at me expectantly. I said, "Doesn't money belong in a bank?"
"They don't trust the bank. Do you want to count it?"
She handed me the envelope, and I took the money in my hands. It felt damp and cool. "One, two, three..." I counted to eleven. Eleven hundred-dollar bills. I wasn't sure what to think. I found a dollar once in a parking lot. I bought a lot of stuff with that. With eleven hundred dollars, it seemed you could buy anything. "I hope our house is painted sky blue," I said.
"It will be." She put the money back. "They think it's hidden, but I saw Mom take it out."
Our parents owned a small Oriental foods grocery store. Unfortunately, there were hardly any Oriental people in Iowa, and the store went out of business shortly after Lynn and I first counted the money under the refrigerator. My father's brother, my uncle Katsuhisa, worked in a poultry hatchery in Georgia. He said he could get my father a job at the hatchery. And, he said, he could get my mother a job working in a poultry processing factory. A few weeks after the store went out of business, my father decided to take us down to Georgia to join the poultry industry.
So we owed Uncle Katsuhisa a big favor for helping us. Katsu means "triumph" in Japanese. For some reason I always thought "triumph" and "trumpet" were the same thing, and I thought of my uncle as a trumpet.
Lynn said Uncle Katsuhisa was an odd fish. He was as loud as my father was quiet. Even when he wasn't talking, he made a lot of noise, clearing his throat and sniffing and tapping his fingers. Sometimes, for no reason that I could see, he would suddenly stand up and clap his hands together really loudly. After he got everyone's attention, he would just sit down again. He even made noise when he was thinking. When he was deep in thought, he had a way of turning his ears inside out so they looked kind of deformed. The ears would make a popping sound when they came undone. Lynn said you could hear him thinking: Pop! Pop!
A buttonlike scar marked one side of Uncle Katsuhisa's nose. The story was that when he was a boy in Japan, he was attacked by giant crows, one of which tried to steal his nose. He, my father, and my mother were Kibei, which meant they were born in the United States but were sent to Japan for their education. The crows of Japan are famous for being mean. Anyway, that was the story Lynn told me.
It was a sweltering day when Uncle Katsuhisa arrived in Iowa to help us move to Georgia. We all ran outside when we heard his truck on our lonely road. His truck jerked and sputtered and was generally as noisy as he was. My mother said, "Will that truck make it all the way to Georgia?"
My father hit his chest with his fist. That's what he did whenever he wanted to say, Definitely! He added, "He's my brother." Our father was solid and tall, six feet, and our mother was delicate and tiny, four feet ten. As tiny as she was, she scared us when she got mad. Her soft face turned hard and glasslike, as if it could break into pieces if something hit it.
As my parents watched Uncle's truck my father reached both of his arms around my mother, enveloping her. He stood with her like that a lot, as if protecting her.
"But his being your brother has nothing to do with whether the truck will make it all the way to Georgia," my mother said.
My father said, "If my brother says it will make it, then it will make it." He didn't seem to have a doubt in the world. His brother was four years older than he was. Maybe he trusted Uncle Katsuhisa the way I trusted Lynn. Lynn whispered to me, "Frankly, I wonder whether the truck will make it all the way up the road to our house, let alone to Georgia." "Frankly" was her favorite word that week.
Our mother looked at us suspiciously. She didn't like it when we whispered. She thought that meant we were gossiping, and she was against gossiping. She focused on me. She was trying to read my mind. Lynn said whenever our mother did that, I should try to think nonsense words in my head. I thought to myself, Elephant, cow, moo, koo, doo. Elephant...My mother turned back around, to watch the truck.
When the truck finally rumbled up, Uncle Katsuhisa jumped out and immediately ran toward Lynn and me. I stepped back, but he swooped me up in his arms and shouted, "My little palomino pony! That's what you are!" He twirled me around until I felt dizzy. Then he set me down and picked up Lynn and twirled her around and said, "My little wolfie girl!"
He set Lynn down and hugged my father hard. He hugged my mother delicately. While Uncle hugged my mother, she turned her face away a bit, as if his loudness made her feel faint.
It was hard to see how my father and Uncle Katsuhisa could be related. My father was mild, like the sea on a windless day, with an unruffled surface and little variation. He was as hard as the wall in our bedroom. Just to prove how strong he was, he used to let us hit him in the stomach as hard as we could. Some days we would sneak up on him and punch him in the stomach, and he never even noticed. We would sneak away while he kept listening to the radio as if nothing had happened.
My father liked to think. Sometimes Lynn and I would peek at him as he sat at the kitchen table, thinking. His hands would be folded on the table, and he would be frowning at nothing. Sometimes he would nod, but only slightly. I knew I would never be a thinker like my father, because I couldn't sit that still. Lynn said he thought so much that sometimes weeks or even months passed before he made a decision. Once he decided something, though, he never changed his mind. He'd thought many weeks before deciding to move us to Georgia. By the time he decided, there was only six hundred dollars in cash left in the envelope under the refrigerator.
The night Uncle Katsuhisa arrived in Iowa, he left the dinner table early so he could go out and take a walk and maybe talk to himself. After the front door closed, my mother said that Uncle Katsuhisa was the opposite of my father in that he didn't look before he leapt, didn't think at all before he made decisions. She lowered her voice and said, "That's why he married that woman," meaning his first wife. Strictly speaking, Mom was gossiping, but who was going to tell her? We all sat silently.
My father and uncle were different in other ways. Uncle Katsuhisa liked to talk to anyone, even to himself. My father didn't like to talk, except to my mother. He preferred to read the newspaper. My uncle, on the other hand, never read the paper. He did not give a hoot what President Eisenhower had to say.
My uncle was exactly one inch taller than my father. But his stomach was soft. We knew this because we hit him in it once the year before, and he yelped in pain and threatened to spank us. We got sent to bed without supper because my parents said hitting someone was the worst thing you could do. Stealing was second, and lying was third.
Before I was twelve, I would have committed all three of those crimes.
Copyright &169; 2004 by Cynthia Kadohata
著者について
Cynthia Kadohata is the author of the Newbery Medal–winning book Kira-Kira, the National Book Award winner The Thing About Luck, the Jane Addams Peace Award and PEN America Award winner Weedflower, Cracker!, Outside Beauty, A Million Shades of Gray, Half a World Away, Checked, A Place to Belong, Saucy, and several critically acclaimed adult novels, including The Floating World. She lives with her dogs and hockey-playing son in California. Visit her online at CynthiaKadohata.com.
登録情報
- 出版社 : Atheneum Books for Young Readers (2004/2/1)
- 発売日 : 2004/2/1
- 言語 : 英語
- ハードカバー : 256ページ
- ISBN-10 : 0689856393
- ISBN-13 : 978-0689856396
- 対象読者年齢 : 10 ~ 14 歳
- 寸法 : 12.7 x 2.29 x 18.42 cm
- Amazon 売れ筋ランキング: - 242,539位洋書 (洋書の売れ筋ランキングを見る)
- - 2,523位Children's Classics
- - 52,284位Education & Reference
- カスタマーレビュー:
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トップレビュー
上位レビュー、対象国: 日本
レビューのフィルタリング中に問題が発生しました。後でもう一度試してください。
2015年8月22日に日本でレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
2012年1月26日に日本でレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
日系人のアメリカでの往時の暮らしを、少女Katieの視点で描いた
作品で、英語も難しくありません。
ニューベリー賞というのがどれくらいの権威がある賞なのか、
正確には知りませんが、そうそうたる作品、作家が受賞しているので
この本もすごいのだろうと思い、またここでのレビューもアメリカの
アマゾンでの評価も高いので読んでみました。このところ児童文学を
原書で読むというのにちょっとはまってたので。
これは最高ですね。
少女ならではのおどけた表現(巧まずしておどけているという意味ですが)
がちりばめられてはいるものの、全体としては子供ならではの写実的な、
余分な解釈の混ざらない文章で、淡々と日常が描かれ、あるところで
お姉さんが病気になってドラマが少し動いて。でもすごくドラマチックだったり
スリリングな出来事があるわけでもなく。
タイトルのきらきらはもちろん日本語ですが、最後のシーンに
すごく効いています。めっちゃくちゃきれいなラストシーンでした。
子供向けというのではなく、もう大体の人生経験がある人でも、
たとえば僕を例にとっても42歳ですが、相当感じるところのある
作品で、これを読んでよかった、と思いました。
(しかも500円ですもんね……)
作品で、英語も難しくありません。
ニューベリー賞というのがどれくらいの権威がある賞なのか、
正確には知りませんが、そうそうたる作品、作家が受賞しているので
この本もすごいのだろうと思い、またここでのレビューもアメリカの
アマゾンでの評価も高いので読んでみました。このところ児童文学を
原書で読むというのにちょっとはまってたので。
これは最高ですね。
少女ならではのおどけた表現(巧まずしておどけているという意味ですが)
がちりばめられてはいるものの、全体としては子供ならではの写実的な、
余分な解釈の混ざらない文章で、淡々と日常が描かれ、あるところで
お姉さんが病気になってドラマが少し動いて。でもすごくドラマチックだったり
スリリングな出来事があるわけでもなく。
タイトルのきらきらはもちろん日本語ですが、最後のシーンに
すごく効いています。めっちゃくちゃきれいなラストシーンでした。
子供向けというのではなく、もう大体の人生経験がある人でも、
たとえば僕を例にとっても42歳ですが、相当感じるところのある
作品で、これを読んでよかった、と思いました。
(しかも500円ですもんね……)
2016年8月1日に日本でレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
難しい単語もそう出てこず、読みやすい物語です。当時の日系人の生活の様子がわかることも勉強になりました。そして、両親ともに激務をこなさないと普通の生活さえままならない状況に胸が痛くなりました。日系1世の方々のご苦労がしのばれます。仲の良い姉妹が最後には病気のために お別れをしてしまう切ないストーリーですが なぜか読後感はさわやかな気がしました。それは、キラキラ キラキラした思い出で彩られているからでしょうか。また時間をおいて ゆっくりと読み直したい、また 中学生の娘にも読ませたい作品です。
2013年11月29日に日本でレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
第2次大戦後の南部ジョージアで、日系二世の両親に育てられる少女の体験ストーリー。
大戦中収容所に入れられていた2世たちが、戦後いかに懸命に生きてきたかなどが、少女の目を通して語られる、非常に興味深く、感動的な作品です。ハッピーエンドではありません。
英文は平易で、初心者にも読みやすいので、いつもの読みなれた小説の合間に読まれてはどうでしょうか。
大戦中収容所に入れられていた2世たちが、戦後いかに懸命に生きてきたかなどが、少女の目を通して語られる、非常に興味深く、感動的な作品です。ハッピーエンドではありません。
英文は平易で、初心者にも読みやすいので、いつもの読みなれた小説の合間に読まれてはどうでしょうか。
2012年3月16日に日本でレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
洋書に挑戦しようとしたものの、他の本で挫折しかけていた。
中学英語さえ忘れている私だけど、これは本当に面白くて寝る間を惜しんで読んだ!
わからない単語は多いが、日系人の決して恵まれていない環境、差別、ひどい労働条件、
そしてその中でも前向きに小さな幸せを大切にしていく主人公達に、どんどん惹きこまれて
いく。姉であるLynnと主人公の絆、大切な人の死、そしてその後も続いていく人生。
決して幸せなことばかりではないが、日々いたるところに溢れている「きらきら」に涙が
止まらない。主人公の父親も何が大切なのかを生き方で語り、心打たれる1冊だった。
中学英語さえ忘れている私だけど、これは本当に面白くて寝る間を惜しんで読んだ!
わからない単語は多いが、日系人の決して恵まれていない環境、差別、ひどい労働条件、
そしてその中でも前向きに小さな幸せを大切にしていく主人公達に、どんどん惹きこまれて
いく。姉であるLynnと主人公の絆、大切な人の死、そしてその後も続いていく人生。
決して幸せなことばかりではないが、日々いたるところに溢れている「きらきら」に涙が
止まらない。主人公の父親も何が大切なのかを生き方で語り、心打たれる1冊だった。
2008年12月4日に日本でレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
貧しくとも誠実に懸命に生きている日系人一家の暮らしを、次女であるKatieの視点からつづった物語です。
養鶏場で働く父親、鶏肉加工場で働く母親、一番の親友でもある姉Lynn、そして幼い弟Samと暮らす主人公。
お勉強は苦手な彼女ですが、ささやかな暮らしを、ぬいぐるみのBera-Beraや想像上の完璧な恋人Joe-Johnで豊かに彩る才知には恵まれています。
それには、大好きな姉が教えてくれた、あらゆるものに輝き(KiraKira)を見つける楽しみも大きな助けとなっています。
物語の前半は、姉妹のKiraKiraな日常。
読んでいて、「愛おしい」って思います。
やがて姉が病に倒れ、一家の生活は次第に困窮します。
悲しい物語ですが、Katieの語り口はシンプルで、まっすぐで、ユーモアを失わず、読んでいてあまり辛い感じはしません。
再生を感じさせるラストは、読み手の心もKiraKiraにしてくれますよ。
非常に読みやすい英文で、難しい言葉もほとんど出てこないので、比較的初心者でも読めるのではないでしょうか?
(難しい言葉はKatieが辞書を引いて教えてくれます)
洋書を読み始めて間もない人でも、ぜひ挑戦してみてください。
養鶏場で働く父親、鶏肉加工場で働く母親、一番の親友でもある姉Lynn、そして幼い弟Samと暮らす主人公。
お勉強は苦手な彼女ですが、ささやかな暮らしを、ぬいぐるみのBera-Beraや想像上の完璧な恋人Joe-Johnで豊かに彩る才知には恵まれています。
それには、大好きな姉が教えてくれた、あらゆるものに輝き(KiraKira)を見つける楽しみも大きな助けとなっています。
物語の前半は、姉妹のKiraKiraな日常。
読んでいて、「愛おしい」って思います。
やがて姉が病に倒れ、一家の生活は次第に困窮します。
悲しい物語ですが、Katieの語り口はシンプルで、まっすぐで、ユーモアを失わず、読んでいてあまり辛い感じはしません。
再生を感じさせるラストは、読み手の心もKiraKiraにしてくれますよ。
非常に読みやすい英文で、難しい言葉もほとんど出てこないので、比較的初心者でも読めるのではないでしょうか?
(難しい言葉はKatieが辞書を引いて教えてくれます)
洋書を読み始めて間もない人でも、ぜひ挑戦してみてください。
2007年8月7日に日本でレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
日系人のお話です。ケイティは5人家族。父と母
姉のリン、弟のサム。両親は家計を支えるべく
朝となく昼となく働き続けます。
ケイティはリンと仲良く、そして弟を思いやり・・・
懸命に生きていきます。
やがてリンが病気になり・・・リンの思い描いていた夢
いろんなことがケイティの心をめぐります。
最後のあたりのリンのせりふが涙を誘います。
翻訳版でもいいので、多くの方に読んで欲しいと思いました。
姉のリン、弟のサム。両親は家計を支えるべく
朝となく昼となく働き続けます。
ケイティはリンと仲良く、そして弟を思いやり・・・
懸命に生きていきます。
やがてリンが病気になり・・・リンの思い描いていた夢
いろんなことがケイティの心をめぐります。
最後のあたりのリンのせりふが涙を誘います。
翻訳版でもいいので、多くの方に読んで欲しいと思いました。
2014年12月7日に日本でレビュー済み
とてもかわいらしく切ない話。
序盤の仲良し姉妹の何気ない日常は微笑ましくて
なんとも仲のいい姉妹のほのぼのとした日記といった感じ。
でも、お姉ちゃんのリンが病気に倒れてからは…
もともと貧しい一家。両親は本当に休む間もなく働きづめなり、
ケイティも弟サムの面倒を見たり、真夜中に起きてお姉ちゃんの面倒を見たりと一生懸命。
でも一向にお姉ちゃんの具合は良くならない。
だんだん精神的にきつくなってきて、それが爆発してしまうシーンが印象的でした。
お父さんお母さんのことが大好きなのに、
お姉ちゃんのことが大好きなのに、
お姉ちゃんが家族をめちゃくちゃにしてる!と怒鳴ってしまったり
お父さんとお母さんのせいでお姉ちゃんが病気になったんだと(本当はそうじゃないこともわかっている)両親を一瞬嫌ってしまったり
そんな自分が嫌になったり・・・
小さな心の、張り裂けそうな叫びに何度も涙しました。
私の英語力は日常会話ができる程度で、これが初めての洋書だったのですが、
この本は対象年齢が10~14歳ということもあり、文法はあまり難しくありませんでした。
また、すべて過去形で書かれている点と、同じ単語・表現が何度も出てくる点が
とても英語の勉強にもなりました。
電子辞書を片手に、4ヶ月ほどかけてやっと読み終わりました。
全244ページ、投げ出さずに読めたのは、内容がすばらしかったから。
素敵な本に巡り合えてよかったと思いました。
序盤の仲良し姉妹の何気ない日常は微笑ましくて
なんとも仲のいい姉妹のほのぼのとした日記といった感じ。
でも、お姉ちゃんのリンが病気に倒れてからは…
もともと貧しい一家。両親は本当に休む間もなく働きづめなり、
ケイティも弟サムの面倒を見たり、真夜中に起きてお姉ちゃんの面倒を見たりと一生懸命。
でも一向にお姉ちゃんの具合は良くならない。
だんだん精神的にきつくなってきて、それが爆発してしまうシーンが印象的でした。
お父さんお母さんのことが大好きなのに、
お姉ちゃんのことが大好きなのに、
お姉ちゃんが家族をめちゃくちゃにしてる!と怒鳴ってしまったり
お父さんとお母さんのせいでお姉ちゃんが病気になったんだと(本当はそうじゃないこともわかっている)両親を一瞬嫌ってしまったり
そんな自分が嫌になったり・・・
小さな心の、張り裂けそうな叫びに何度も涙しました。
私の英語力は日常会話ができる程度で、これが初めての洋書だったのですが、
この本は対象年齢が10~14歳ということもあり、文法はあまり難しくありませんでした。
また、すべて過去形で書かれている点と、同じ単語・表現が何度も出てくる点が
とても英語の勉強にもなりました。
電子辞書を片手に、4ヶ月ほどかけてやっと読み終わりました。
全244ページ、投げ出さずに読めたのは、内容がすばらしかったから。
素敵な本に巡り合えてよかったと思いました。
他の国からのトップレビュー
ItsFearless
5つ星のうち5.0
A Masterpiece
2024年6月2日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
Do yourself a favor and read this book. Cynthia Kadohata’s prose sings through every page you turn. Such a magical story that would make you see how even though the world seemed very simple, or very cruel, or full of fun, if we pay attention to the smallest details, then we will see how beautiful life is.
This is a book that should be a part of your collection. Kira-Kira deserves that Newberry medal.
This is a book that should be a part of your collection. Kira-Kira deserves that Newberry medal.
Ashwini
5つ星のうち5.0
Extremely lovely
2019年3月14日にインドでレビュー済みAmazonで購入
This book is such a beautiful one depicting the love between the two sisters. I loved it a lot. It deserves five stars
Wendy Sci-Fi Reader
5つ星のうち5.0
Such a heart warming book
2019年6月11日に英国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
This book was really good. Great for young adults 11-15. It has so much emotion and teaches about all aspects of a happy life in poverty
Snejana
5つ星のうち5.0
Days ago in my life with
2014年4月29日にカナダでレビュー済みAmazonで購入
that was supposed to be able to fire up the walking dead in a few minutes ago by the walking dead in a few minutes ago celebrities in the movie is that you can see it here for a great time in the morning of us who are you doing today I have no idea why do they know that they have a great way to go back and tv shows you how to be a family member since you are going out to fire fighter jet ski resort and it's not a farm in the morning of the movie and I have a good thing you need to be able too much for that matter to you guys are having a farm in my life of the last time I have a good night and it's
Amazon Customer
5つ星のうち5.0
LOVE
2023年11月10日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
I had originally read this book while I was in middle school I believe, and was absolutely inlove with it then. I was never a big reader but throughout the years always thought about this book as it was one of the only books I enjoyed. Recently after 10 years I’ve really gotten into reading and am a bit of a book worm now, so naturally I needed to purchase this as it was still on my mind. It was just as good as the first time I read it, would highly recommend to younger and older readers.