Kira-Kira, the title of the first children's book by Cynthia Kadohata, comes from the Japanese word for glittering. On January 17, the book won the American Library Association's Newbery Medal, the top prize for children's writing. The book, about a Japanese-American girl growing up in the South, is loosely based on the author's childhood. "Write what you love and know," Kadohata told TFK. "Don't think about what somebody else would like."