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the way to learn about a country is to read about its people. to make it interesting, it is best to meet people who are part of a family. each reader of this book is a son or daughter with a mother and a father. as you read about someone in another country who lives in a family like you do, then you will understand the families are alike in many ways but different in other ways. as you compare your family to an american family, you will compare chinese families to american families. in this way, you will understand what another country is like by meeting americans in a family. in about 1990, four families came to america from two northern european countries, two from sweden and two from norway. the swedish were named anderson and the norwegians were named hagen. the grandchildren of these families were named janet anderson and dennis hagen. these two young people fell in love and married in 1960. they will be the parents in this story. they became teachers in the united states and they also were teachers in china for ten years from 1990 to 1999. they had four children, eric, pam, tim, and jon. when eric was a child, he liked to read and add numbers. in high school, he played tennis and made music with a trombone in the band and with his singing voice in the chorus. pam was a very loving daughter. she enjoyed her dolls just like a young mother. in high school, she also played tennis and made music with an oboe in the band. | 
