Where do most writers get their
ideas? For Yoshiko Uchida, it all began with Brownie, a five-month-old puppy.
So excited was Yoshiko by Brownie’s arrival that she started
keeping a journal, writing about all the wonderful things Brownie did and the
progress he made.
Soon she was writing about other
memorable events in her life, too, like the day her family got their first
refrigerator. She also began writing stories, thanks to one of her teachers.
Yoshiko wrote stories about animal characters such as Jimmy Chipmunk and Willie
the Squirrel. She kept on writing, sharing the kitchen table with her mother,
who wrote poems on scraps of paper and the backs of envelopes.
Yoshiko grew up in the 1930s in
Berkeley, California. Her parents, both of whom had been born in Japan,
provided a loving and happy home for Yoshiko and her sister. They also provided
a stream of visitors to their home who later found their way into Yoshiko’s stories. One visitor who later appeared in several of Yoshiko’s stories was the bad-tempered Mr. Toga, who lived above the
church that her family attended. Mr. Toga would scold anyone who displeased
him. The children all feared him and loved to tell stories about how mean he
was and how his false teeth rattled (咯咯响) when he talked.
Yoshiko also included in her
stories some of the places she visited and the experiences she had. One of her
favorite places was a farm her parents took her to one summer. The owners of
the farm, showed Yoshiko and her sister how to pump water from the well and how
to gather eggs in the henhouse. They fed the mules that later pulled a wagon
loaded with hay while Yoshiko and the others rode in the back, staring up at
the stars shining in the night sky. Yoshiko, who lived in the city, had never
seen such a sight. As Yoshiko gazed up at the stars, she was filled with hope
and excitement about her life. The images of that hayride stayed with her long
after the summer visit ended, and she used them in several of her stories.
The experiences Yoshiko had and
the parade of people who marched through her young life became a part of
the world she created in over twenty books for young people, such as The Best
Bad Thing and A Jar of Dreams. Because of such books, we can all share just a
little bit of the world and the times in which this great writer grew up.
1.The author tells about Mr. Toga’s false teeth in Paragraph 3 in order to ____________.
A. show health care was not good enough
in Berkeley during the 1930s
B. provide an interesting detail
in Yoshiko’s life and stories
C. show Yoshiko’s young life was difficult and frightening
D. tell about a beloved relative
who helped Yoshiko learn how to write
2. In Paragraph 4 “the
stars” probably refer to ____________.
A. family relationships B.
terrors in the night
C. limitless possibilities D.
sacrifices to benefit others
3. What does the underlined part in the last
paragraph mean?
A. Yoshiko loved to write about
parades.
B. Yoshiko met many interesting
people.
C. Yoshiko liked to go for long
walks with others.
D. Yoshiko preferred to talk to
her pets instead of to people.
4. What is the main idea of this story?
A. People who live in the city
should spend as much time as they can in the country.
B. Writers like Yoshiko Uchida
must communicate with as many writers as possible.
C. Those who move to the United
States often miss their homelands for many years.
D. Writers like Yoshiko Uchida
look to the richness of their lives for material.