Cynthia Kadohata

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Cynthia Kadohata bigraphy, stories - American children's writer

Cynthia Kadohata : biography

1956 –

Cynthia Kadohata (born 1956 in Chicago, Illinois) is a Japanese American writer known for winning the 2005 Newbery Medal. Her first published short story appeared in The New Yorker in 1986.

Weedflower, her second children’s book, was published in Spring 2006. It is about the Poston internment camp where her father was imprisoned during World War II. Her third children’s novel, about the Vietnam War from a war dog’s perspective, was published in January 2007 by Atheneum Books for young readers. She has three more children’s books scheduled to be published by Atheneum.

"Outside Beauty", another children’s novel, was published in 2008. It is about a 13-year-old girl and her three sisters, all fathered by different men and what happens when she and her sisters are separated from each other after their mother gets into an accident.

Novels

  • The Floating World, 1989
  • In the Heart of the Valley of Love, 1992
  • The Glass Mountains, 1995
  • Kira-Kira, 2004, 2005 Newbery Medal winner,Program Guide, Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in association with UCLA, April 18, 2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature winner
  • Weedflower, 2006, a PEN USA Award winner
  • Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam, 2007 California Young Reader Medal, North Carolina Children’s Book Award, Ohio Buckeye Children’s Book Award, Nebraska Golden Sower, Kansas William Allen White Children’s Book Award, South Carolina Junior Book Award 2011
  • Outside Beauty, 2008
  • A Million Shades of Gray, 2010
  • The Thing About Luck, 2013

Personal

  • High school drop-out
  • BA in journalism from the University of Southern California
  • Attended graduate programs at the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University
  • Lives in Los Angeles