The Thing About Luck

The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata, 269 pages

Summer’s family has had a year of really bad luck. Summer almost died from malaria, her brother’s only friend moved away, and her parents had to take an emergency trip to Japan. Her parents’ trip coincided with the start of the harvest season, so Summer, her brother, Jaz, and their grandparents are going to be working alone this year. They help harvest wheat every year. Jiichan, Summer’s grandfather, drives one of the combines and Summer helps her grandmother, Obaachan, cook the meals, because the mortgage has to be paid. A couple of good things are that Summer gets out of school for a little while (but she still has to do the homework) and there’s a boy, Robbie, who Summer thinks is cute. Even with the good things, more bad luck keeps coming. There’s trouble with her dog, Thunder, and Jiichan gets sick and may not be able to work. Summer wants to figure out how to turn their luck around. A really nice, slice-of-life kind of story, kids who like real life type stories will probably enjoy this.