If she hadn’t saved my life first, I wouldn’t have been able to save hers.
My sister, Lynn, taught me my first word: kira-kira. I pronounced it as ka-a-ahhh, but she knew what I meant. Kira-kira means “glittering” in Japanese. Lynn told me that when I was a baby, she used to take me onto our empty road at night, where we would lie on our backs and look at the stars while she said over and over, “Katie, say ‘kira-kira, kira-kira.’ ” I loved that word! When I grew older, I used kira-kira to describe everything I liked: the beautiful blue sky, puppies, kittens, butterflies, colored Kleenex.
I was born in Iowa in 1951. I know a lot about when I was a little girl, because my sister used to keep a diary. Today I keep her diary in a drawer next to my bed.
I like to see how her memories were the same as mine, but also different. For instance, one of my earliest memories is of the day Lynn saved my life. I was almost five, and she was almost nine. We were playing on the empty road near our house. Fields of tall corn stretched into the distance wherever you looked. A dirty gray dog ran out of the field near us, and then it ran back in. Lynn loved animals. Her long, black hair disappeared into the corn as she chased the dog. The summer sky was clear and blue. I felt a brief fear as Lynn disappeared into the cornstalks.
“Lynnie!” I shouted. We weren’t that far from our house, but I felt scared. I burst into tears.
Somehow or other, Lynn got behind me and said: “Boo!” and I cried some more. She just laughed and hugged me and said,” You’re the best little sister in the world!” I liked it when she said that, so I stopped crying.
The dog ran off eventually. We lay on our backs and stared at the blue sky.
The dog burst from the field suddenly, growling and snarling. Its teeth were long and yellow. We screamed and jumped up. The dog grabbed my pants. As I pulled away, the dog ripped my pants and his cold teeth touched my skin. “Aaahhhhh!” I screamed.
Lynn pulled at the dog’s tail and shouted at me, “Run Katie, run!” I ran, hearing the dog growling and Lynnie grunting. When I got to the house, I turned around and saw the dog tearing at Lynn’s pants as she huddled over into a ball. I ran inside and looked for a weapon. I couldn’t think straight. I got a milk bottle out of the fridge and ran towards Lynn and threw the bottle at the dog. The bottle missed the dog and broke on the street. The dog rushed to lap up the milk.
Lynn and I ran toward the house, but Lynn stopped on the porch. I pulled at her. “Come on!”
She looked worried. “He’s going to cut his tongue on the glass!”
“Who cares?”
But she got the water hose anyway and chased the dog away with the water, so the glass wouldn’t hurt its tongue. That’s the way Lynn was. Even if you tried to kill her and bite off her leg, she still forgave you.
This is what Lynn said in her diary from that day:
The corn was so pretty. When it was all around me, I felt like I wanted to stay there forever. Then I heard Katie crying, and I ran out as fast as I could. I was so scared! I thought something had happened to her!
Later, when the dog attacked me, Katie saved my life.
I didn’t really see things that way. If she hadn’t saved my life first, I wouldn’t have been able to save hers. So, really, she’s the one who saved a life.
Extract from the book Kira-kira
By Cynthia Kadohata
All Rights Reserved.
New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2004
Call Number: J English KAD
Extract contributed by Ynez Tan Yi Na
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Do you agree that there is always another way of looking at things?
January 11th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Yes, there is always another way to look at things. After all, different people have different perspectives. Like snowflakes; no two are alike.
January 12th, 2009 at 9:09 am
Yes, agreed. A thing or an event is neither good nor bad. It’s all about perspectives.
January 20th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Yes I agreed too. Just like the saying… “Do you see a half empty glass or do you see a half full glass”. The statement that you choose really depends on how you look at things.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Yes, I most definitely agree that there are many many ways of looking at things. It is either the postive way or the negative way. I always try my best to look at things the postitive way. Like what my mum always tells me, you either see a glass that is half full or half empty. I always try my best to look at it half full. But, sometimes, I tend to see a glass as half empty. I am trying to change that. As seeing things the positive way is best as viewing things at a negative perspective will only cause more stress which I can’t afford to have, especially this year, as it is PSLE Year.
January 25th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Yeah… i agree:) It is a matter of perspective. What one may see or percieve, another may not see it…
January 29th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Yes,i agree that there is always another way of looking at things.
March 5th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
YES. There are manyyyyyyyyyy ways of lookin at stuff. As the saying goes one man’s meat can be another man’s poison
March 16th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
This is an easy one. Definitely!
March 27th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
I have read this book in school before and it really touched me.Lynn lost her life after that.I t’s so sad,isn’t it?
July 9th, 2009 at 10:18 am
i know what you are saying but i don’t understand
July 16th, 2009 at 2:29 am
UM YAAAAAAAAA there are so many ways you can look at one situation its impossible!
July 26th, 2009 at 10:08 am
yes there is another way of looking at things. People have their ideas and thoughts in their head.