Chapter 4 Summary

The Takeshima family moves into their new apartment the next day. It is much smaller than the house they rented in Iowa with moldy walls in the bathroom and dirty, peeling wallpaper in the kitchen. Katie's mother does not like it and that makes Katie's father unhappy. He tries to cheer her up by saying they can make her a sewing area in the living room. Katie's mother says that is not possible. They will have to put Katie's desk there when she starts school.

Katie starts kindergarten, but she cries and screams so much her parents decide it would be better to wait for her to begin school in first grade. Katie spends her days with a Japanese neighbor, Mrs. Kanagawa, and waits every afternoon for Lynn to come home from school to play with her. Mrs. Kanagawa says Katie is like...