Cynthia Kadohata's Kira-Kira, published in 2004, is the story of a young Japanese American girl growing up in the 1950s. This is Kadohata's first book for young adults, following several adult novels. It highlights the work and life experiences of Japanese Americans in the pre-Civil Rights era, as well as their struggles to achieve the American dream. The novel explores the relationship between individual and community identity. In Kira-Kira, community helps to define the individual. The main character, Katie, develops her sense of self through her experiences and relationships with others—friends and family, neighbors, teachers, and peers.

Katie chronicles her family's life in the United States. In her first-person narration she emphasizes the lessons in honesty, love, disappointment, and hope that her sister, brother, and parents teach her. Although the novel recounts the many hardships the family endures—back-breaking work, poverty, racism, illness, and death—it also focuses on those moments in life that are kira-kira, which means "glittering" in Japanese. These are the moments when the characters of the novel experience the things that make life worth living: beauty, happiness, and hope.