Kate knew her daughter’s trick and said, “Blue whale.”

“Right. Okay, 10 points.”

Unlike her contemporary, Cathy had no interest in stories of prince and princess. Her bedtime reading was a children’s encyclopedia. They read it the night before, and then the next morning, they quizzed each other on the way to school.

Fifteen minutes’ drive to Cathy’s school. Five-year-old Cathy had not been to kindergarten in the States, and when they came over here, she went to the primary school directly. Kate was worried that she could not get used to school life, but after a few days in school, Cathy told her mother that her classmates thought she...