The Thing About Luck

The Thing About Luck

by Cynthia Kadohata

Atheneum Books for Young Readers (June 4, 2013)

Summary: One year, Summer’s family had no luck. Only bad luck. It all started when Summer caught malaria – a rare disease spread by mosquitoes. But the bad luck doesn’t stop there. Right before harvest season, Summer’s parents are whisked away to Japan for family issues.

The mortgage is payed by harvesting, though. So who do Summers’ parents send in? Her grandparents: Obaachan and Jichan.

This harvest season is like no other.

A boy starts “interacting” with Summer, which gets her grandmother disappointed. Summer drives the combine truck (I was never able to figure out what it’s name exactly was, or if it even had an exact name). But mostly, the bad luck goes away.



What I liked best: This book reminded me a bit of Beholding Bee. The books were really different, of course. One thing that made me think it was similar was: Summer and Bee both had bad luck. And they both got rid of it.

Honestly, I couldn’t understand some of the harvest stuff. It was a bit confusing and there was a lot to take in. The author did a good job of explaining, but I kept going “okay, maybe if I keep reading it’ll get easier."It was a still a good read, and the sketches helped! --S