There is bad luck, good luck, and making your own luckwhich is exactly what Summer must do to save her family in this winner of the National Book Award by Newbery Medalist Cynthia Kadohata.Summer knows that kouun means good luck in Japanese, and this year her family has none of it. Just when she thinks nothing else can possibly go wrong, an emergency whisks her parents away to Japanright before harvest season. Summer and her little brother, Jaz, are left in the care of their grandparents, who come out of retirement in order to harvest wheat and help pay the bills. The thing about Obaachan and Jiichan is that they are old-fashioned and demanding, and between helping Obaachan cook for the workers, covering for her when her back pain worsens, and worrying about her lonely little brother, Summer just barely has time to notice the attentions of their bosss cute son. But notice she does, and what begins as a welcome distraction from the hard work soon turns into a mess of its own. Having thoroughly disappointed her grandmother, Summer figures the bad luck must be finishedbut then it gets worse. And when that happens, Summer has to figure out how to change it herself, even if it means further displeasing Obaachan. Because it might be the only way to save her family. Cynthia Kadohatas ode to the breadbasket of America has received six starred reviews and won the National Book Award.

 

 

This book is aimed at children at US 5th grade-9th grade.

This book has been graded for interest at 10-14 years.

There are 288 pages in this book. This book was published in 2014 by Simon & Schuster .

Julia Kuo is the creator of 20 Ways to Draw a Cat and 44 Other Awesome Animals as well as the charming board book Everyone Eats . Julia also created the cover and interior artwork for Newbery Medal-winning author Cynthia Kadohata's The Thing About Luck and Place I Belong and New York Times bestselling author Jenny Han's Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream . She lives in Chicago.