The Thing About Luck

Title: The Thing About Luck

 

Author: Cynthia Kadohata

 

Summary: 12 year old Summer and her younger brother are staying with their grandparents during the harvesting season. As Summer travels the road with them harvesting crops, she learns a lot about herself and who she is and she may just find better luck too.

 

Comments: There really isn't much of a summary for this book, because there really isn't too much to the story. Summer is a likeable character, though besides the backstory about her having had malaria and her now being fascinated with mosquitoes, there really isn't too much character development.

Her brother seems a little stereotyped as the "different sibling" and her grandparents seem a little stereotyped too as the "foreign, strict grandparents".

The book has A LOT of information on combines and harvesting, which could appeal to many girls who read this book, but some younger readers or uninterested readers may find all the harvest talk to be a bit of a slow-down or bore. I personally found it interesting, but I could see myself getting easily frustrated with all of the details of driving a combine, if I wasn't interested in learning about it.

I like how Summer makes an effort to dare to be different; I find that a redeeming quality in her character.

However, I think that the part where Summer falls in love with a boy (the child of the woman who runs the harvest team) was just too much. It just seemed like too much detail of kissing and all that in the book.) I think that the whole scene was just a little ridiculous and I wonder why I lot of books nowadays seem to always have a love story woven in - it just didn't feel quite necessary.

This didn't take up the whole book though; so I'm still going to rate it okay for 10+, but it may not be.

The characters in the book; besides Summer, didn't really seem to develop throughout the story.

Overall, I think that the book was okay. It was a little slow, but if the reader is "into" the book enough to read into everything, it can really be a deep book that makes an impact on the reader.

 

Complaints: I think some of the scenes were a little too mature for the book's target audience. There was also too much information on the harvest process; at times it felt more like an informational pamphlet on harvesting than it did a fiction book. Some of the characters fell short of my expectations and were a little flat.

 

Rating: 3 stars