Cynthia Kadohata

Cynthia Kadohata (born July 2, 1956)[1] is a Japanese American children's writer best known for her young adult novel Kira-Kira which won the Newbery Medal in 2005.[2] She won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2013 for The Thing About Luck.[3]

Cynthia Kadohata
Kadohata in 2014-2015
Kadohata in 2014-2015
Born (1956-07-02) July 2, 1956
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
OccupationWriter
EducationUniversity of Southern California (BA)
GenreChildren's and Young-adult literature
Notable works
Notable awardsWhiting Award
1991
Newbery Medal
2005
PEN USA
2006
National Book Award
2013
ChildrenSammy
Website
www.cynthiakadohata.com

Biography

Kadohata was born in Chicago, Illinois.[1] Her first published short story appeared in The New Yorker in 1986. She received a BA in journalism from the University of Southern California in 1979.[4] She also attended graduate programs at the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University.

Kadohata started her writing career with short story submissions to magazines. Her first publication, titled Charlie O., was published in 1986 in The New Yorker.[5] Later stories were published in The Pennsylvania Review, Grand Street, and Ploughshares.[6]

Weedflower, her second children's book, was published in Spring 2006. It is about the Poston internment camp where her father was imprisoned during World War II. Her third children's novel, Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam about the Vietnam War from a war dog's perspective, was published in January 2007 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Outside Beauty, another children's novel, was published in 2008. It is about a 13-year-old girl and her three sisters, all fathered by different men and what happens when she and her sisters are separated from each other after their mother gets into an accident.

At least two of Kadohata's books touch on the topic of chick sexing. The family of the main character in her first novel, 1989's The Floating World, and also the family of the protagonist in 2004's Kira-Kira are employed at chicken hatcheries separating male chicks from female.[7] Kadohata's inspiration was her own personal experience. Her father was a chick sexer during her childhood.[8]

As of January 2021, Kadohata lived in Los Angeles with her boyfriend, son, and dogs.[9]

Novels
  • The Floating World (Viking, 1989)[10]
  • In the Heart of the Valley of Love (Viking, 1992)[1]
  • The Glass Mountains (Clarkston, GA, White Wolf Pub, 1995), illus. Terese Nielson and Larry S. Friedman[1][11]
  • Kira-Kira (Atheneum, 2004)
Newbery Medal[2]
Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature - Youth Literature [12]
PEN USA Award
  • Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam (Atheneum, 2007)
California Young Reader Medal, 2011[13]
North Carolina Children's Book Award, Ohio Buckeye Children's Book Award, Nebraska Golden Sower, Kansas William Allen White Children's Book Award, South Carolina Junior Book Award
  • Outside Beauty (Atheneum, 2008)
  • A Million Shades of Gray (Atheneum, 2010)
  • The Thing About Luck (Atheneum, 2013), illustrated by Julia Kuo[14]
National Book Award for Young People's Literature
Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature - Youth Literature [15]
  • Half a World Away (Atheneum, 2014)[16]
  • Checked (Atheneum, 2018)
  • A Place to Belong (Atheneum, 2019)
  • Vape (Caitlyn Dlouhy, 2023)[17]

Short stories

See also

References
  1. Cynthia Kadohata at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB). Retrieved 2013-11-22.
  2. "Newbery Medal and Honor Books, 1922–Present". Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). American Library Association (ALA).
      "The John Newbery Medal". ALSC. ALA. Retrieved 2013-11-22.
  3. "2013 National Book Awards". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2013-11-22. With short interviews of winners and finalists.
  4. "Cynthia Kadohata '79". University of Southern California. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  5. Kadohata, Cynthia (13 October 1986). "Charlie O." The New Yorker. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  6. "Cynthia Kadohata at Worldcat". worldcat.org. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  7. van Harmelen, Jonathan. "Chick sexing". Densho Encyclopedia. Densho. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  8. "Cynthia Kadohata". BookBrowse. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  9. "About". Cynthia Kadohata. Archived from the original on 2021-03-01.
  10. Kakutani, Michiko (1989-06-30). "Books of The Times; Growing Up Rootless in an Immigrant Family". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  11. Cynthia Kadohata in libraries (WorldCat catalog). Retrieved 2013-11-22.
  12. "2005-2006 Awards Winners". APALA. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  13. "Booklist – Middle School / Junior High" Archived 2013-12-03 at the Wayback Machine. California Young Reader Medal. Retrieved 2013-11-22.
  14. Goddu, Krystyna Poray (2013-06-14). "'The Favorite Daughter' and 'The Thing About Luck'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  15. "2013-2014 AWARDS WINNERS". APALA. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  16. RITA WILLIAMS-GARCIA (17 Oct 2014). "Sunday Book Review: 'Half a World Away' by Cynthia Kadohata". New York Times. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  17. Maughan, Shannon. "Spring 2023 Children's Sneak Previews". Publishers Weekly. PWxyz. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  18. Kadohata, Cynthia (13 October 1986). "Charlie O." The New Yorker. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  19. Kadohata, Cynthia (1988). "Seven Moons". Grand Street. 7 (4): 73–80. doi:10.2307/25007134. JSTOR 25007134.
  20. Kadohata, Cynthia (1989). "Breece D'J Pancake". Mississippi Review. 18 (1): 35–61. JSTOR 20134237.
  21. "Winter 1999-00". Ploushares at Emerson College. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  • Staff (September 2007) "Cynthia Kadohata 1956– " Biography Today 15(3) pp. 38–49
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