The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata

Synopsis:

Summer knows that kouun means good luck" in Japanese, and this year her family has had none. Just when Summer thinks nothing else can possibly go wrong, an emergency whisks her parents away to Japan, right before harvest season leaving Summer and her little brother, Jaz, in the care of their elderly grandparents, Obaachan and Jiichan.

Obaachan and Jiichan are old fashioned, very demanding, and easily disappointed. Between helping Obaachan cook for the workers and with all the other chores, and worrying about her little brother, who can't seem to make any friends, Summer has her hands full. But when a welcome distraction turns into a big mess, causing further disappointment, Summer realises she must try and make her own luck as it might be the only way to save her family.


My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this middle grade novel! I knew nothing about harvest season, where people work their way throughout the Midwest during the summer, harvesting grain for multiple farms. There are a lot of details about harvesting, but they were interesting! I was instantly concerned about Summer's frail grandparents, especially Jiichan, who is expected to work grueling hours. While the harvesters work, Summer and Jaz are left in the care of Obaachan, whom Summer is convinced never liked her (despite what her mom has told her). Obaachan is expected to prepare meals for the whole crew, according to a very specific cookbook written by one of the owners, and also to find her way around new small towns for grocery stores. This means that Summer is very much a part of both the grocery scavenger hunts, and the cooking. To make it worse, Obaachan suffers from terrible back pain. 

Summer suffers from anxiety because of what happened to her the year before: she contracted malaria from a mosquito, and became deathly ill. She spends her day covered in DEET, and obsesses about mosquitoes, their anatomy, and their habits. 

She also has to help with her little brother, Jaz, who is on the autistic spectrum. There is also some microaggression from the other workers and some of the farmers, because Jiichan is a senior citizen, and the whole family is Japanese American. All of this adds up to a less than fun summer, at least where Summer is concerned, but her journey leads to a bittersweet discovery of independence. Even though she's only 12, Summer realizes what an asset she is to her entire family.

The Thing About Luck ends in the middle of the summer, without any real resolution. We don't know when Summer's parents will be back, if either grandparent's health will get better or worse, or if their perilous status with the harvesting crew will hold, or not. But it didn't really matter to me. It ended at a very pivotal moment in Summer's life, and felt like a perfect conclusion for this novel. 

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?