![]() ![]() Kadohata makes all the right choices in structure and narrative. Her grandparents’ Japanese culture and perspective are treated lovingly and with gentle humor, as are her brother’s eccentricities. ![]() As the season progresses, her relationships with her grandparents and her brother change and deepen, reflecting her growing maturity. She writes a journal chronicling the frightening and overwhelming events, including endless facts about the mosquitoes she fears, the harvest process and the farm machinery that must be conquered. So Summer, her brother and their grandparents must take on the whole burden of working the harvest and coping with one emergency after another. Now her parents must go to Japan to care for elderly relatives. Among other strange occurrences, Summer was bitten by a stray, diseased mosquito and nearly died of malaria, and her grandmother suffers from sudden intense spinal pain. It has been a particularly hard-luck year. But this year, they face unprecedented physical and emotional challenges. Twelve-year-old Summer and her Japanese-American family work every harvest season to earn money to pay their mortgage. ![]()
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