Menard teaches comparative literature. In this essay, Menard considers Kadohata's book in relation to current debates within American and multi cultural literature.

Although it is a novel intended for young readers, Kadohata's Kira-Kira can be read within the author's entire body of work, which consists primarily of novels for an adult audience. Kira-Kira explores many of the same themes and issues that are present in all of Kadohata's novels. It is also representative of the debates occurring within American and multicultural literature.

In the 1960s, American literature began to move toward inclusion of ethnic, religious, and racial groups that had been left out of a traditionally "white" canon. As a result of the experiences of World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights Movement, Americans looked for ways to redefine themselves. African Americans, Jewish Americans, and other groups whose experiences had largely been absent from...