Kira-Kira

Cynthia Kadohata

p. 119



Katie is a young Japanese girl who lives in America in the 1950s and 1960s with her parents, her older sister Lynn, and her baby brother Sam. They live in Iowa for a long time, but when Katie is little, they move to Georgia. This is one of the external conflicts, because they aren't accepted as well in the south as they were in the midwest, because they aren't white. Katie also has to start school and try to make friends. A conflict that is kind of both external and internal is that Katie is growing up. She has to take care of her baby brother and she has to deal with the fact that her sister Lynn starts to hang out with other kids instead of her. She doesn't do much to solve the conflict. There isn't much she really can do. She really just tries to make the situation work, which is I would do.