CAN A PERSON CHANGE THEIR LUCK?

Good luck can be a very elusive thing and something  not often thought about about much unless perhaps you win the lottery or get struck by lightening. For Summer's family the luck is all bad and just when she thinks that things can't get worse, a usually fatal thought, they do. Her parents have to leave for Japan just as the harvest season is starting which provides the family jobs and money pay the mortgage. That bill must be paid so it means that Summer, her younger brother and their grandparents will have to take over and go in the parent's place. 

In Newbery Award-winning author Cynthia Kadohata's book THE THING ABOUT LUCK, the reader shares not only what it is like to be part of a custom harvesting crew but Summer's story of growing up in a very traditional Japanese family and the big risk she takes to change her family's luck. 

For grades 5-8, this book has been nominated for a National Book Award.