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The form of Japanese children's personal narratives is distinctly different from that of English-speaking children. Despite follow-up questions that encouraged them to talk about one personal narrative at length, Japanese children spoke succinctly about collections of experiences rather than elaborating on any one experience. Conversations between mothers in the two cultures were examined in order to account for the way in which cultural narrative style is transmitted to children. Comparison of mothers yielded the following contrasts: (1) Japanese-speaking mothers requested less description from their children than English-speaking mothers; (2) Japanese mothers gave less evaluation and showed more attention than English-speaking mothers; (3) Japanese mothers paid attention more frequently to boys than girls; and (4) at 5 years of age, Japanese children produce 1.22 utterances per turn on average, while English-speaking children produce 2.0 utterances per turn. It is suggested that the production of short narratives in Japan is understood and valued differently from such production in North America. (Author/AB)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert