Waves of Luck?

Summer has decided that this is just a year of bad luck for her family.  First she almost died from malaria, then her brothers only friend moved away, after that her parents had to go back to Japan to care for aging relatives right at the start of the harvest.   That means Summer and her brother must travel with their grandparents during the harvest.  You see Summers family owns combines which are very expensive pieces of farming equipment.  So expensive that many farmers chose not to buy them.  Instead, they contract out to people like Summer's family.  It works because you only need a combine at harvest time, so people like Summer's family will travel to many different farms and use their equipment to harvest the wheat for the farmer.

This is the start of Cynthia Kadohata's The Thing About Luck.  Summer effortlessly portrays the intricacies of her world.  A brother with needs that are still unidentified but look similar to Autism, parents that had to return to Japan, a school year fractured by the harvest, and a blend of Japanese and American cultures.  All of these things should add up to a book that I really enjoyed, but somehow they just didn't.

Summer has a unique cadence, a rhythm with which she expresses her thoughts, and I just couldn't catch the rhythm.  The detailed descriptions of farming equipment also didn't help.  Please don't misinterpret, this wasn't a chore to read. The story was good and I truly enjoyed the glimpse into a life very different than my own.  It just wasn't a book I loved.

Does Summer's bad luck ever end?  You'll have to read the book to find out.

Making your own luck...that's kids stuff.  

PS Does Cynthia Kadohata sound familiar?  She should.  She wrote the Newbery Winner Kira Kira.