The Thing About Luck

The Thing About Luck is a 2013 illustrated children’s novel by Japanese-American author Cynthia Kadohata. The book is narrated by twelve-year-old Japanese-American Summer, who learns about her identity and heritage while working to support her family in Texas. A bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story, the plot focuses on Summer’s maturation into a compassionate, hard-working, and empathetic teenager by tackling her assumptions, insecurities, and doubts about her future.

The novel begins in rural Kansas, where Summer’s family lives. Summer, who writes in the past tense, states that this particular summer would later become identified with her family’s bad luck. At the beginning of the year, Summer contracted malaria, most likely from a single infected mosquito in the area. The virus, which comes from the tropics and is rare anywhere else, is potentially fatal to those it infects. After getting malaria, Summer developed a complicated attitude towards mosquitoes, finding them dually beautiful and dangerous, representing the preciousness and precarity of life. Next, Summer describes the people closest to her. These include her mischievous little brother, Jaz; her erratic and controlling grandmother, whom she refers to as Obaachan; and her grandfather, an industrious and mild-mannered man she calls Jiichan.

Late that spring, Summer’s family is hired by a business in the farming industry called Parker Harvesting Inc. The company sends workers to different farms, helping them pack and move crops to distribution centers. Summer’s parents leave for Japan to help out with some ailing relatives. As a result, Summer, Obaachan, and Jiichan have little choice but to work for Parker Harvesting in order to pay the mortgage.



When harvest season comes, Summer and her grandparents travel from Kansas to Texas to complete their first assignment. They are assigned to a huge farm owned by the Parker family, where Summer juggles her schoolwork along with taking care of Jaz. She also helps Obaachan cook and serve meals for the rest of the work crew. She develops a crush on Robbie Parker and experiences her first kiss. She also helps care for and discipline the family’s unruly dog, Thunder.

As the harvest progresses, the Parkers decide to divide the work crew into two groups. They keep one group in Texas to finish the initial harvesting job and send the other group to another farm in Oklahoma. Sent to Oklahoma, Summer and her family never enjoy seeing the completion of their work in Texas. They begin a new assignment in Oklahoma, which frustrates Jiichan. Eventually, he exhausts himself and has to take time off work to recover.

Afraid that her family will lose the income they need to pay the mortgage, Summer takes over Jiichan’s job. At first, the twelve-year-old girl struggles to learn the ropes of a job geared for able-bodied men. However, some friendly crewmembers help her learn how to get the job done. With their assistance and her own determination, she gets the job done before summer, and her family gets their full paycheck. After the harvest, Summer returns to Kansas. She reunites with her parents and looks back on how much she learned working on the farms. The Thing About Luck is a testament to the value of hard work, a virtue that has helped many families and descendants of Japanese immigrants make a living in the United States.