12 - Kira-kira, by Cynthia Kadohata

I picked this Newbery award winner up when I took my students to the library this morning, and I finished it by the end of the day! It was very sweet. As Americans, we are very attuned to the misfortunes of African Americans at various points in our history, but we do not often stop to think about what life has been like for other groups of people. Although this book makes no effort towards blanket statements, it does paint a compelling picture of the hardships a Japanese family MIGHT have encountered in the first half of the twentieth century, especially in the rural south, where the outsider is always treated with suspicion at best and downright hostility at worst.