Despite already having an older brother Benedict, B. is actually born because her Catholic parents believe in God’s words in Genesis: “be fruitful and multiply.” And the One Child Policy legislation is stalled in Congress owing to a split between environmentalists worried about the earth’s “carrying capacity” and ruling party strategists worried about a shrinking political base. For years afterwards on her birthday, B. and her multiple siblings giggle when their mother tells how a very earnest nurse in the formerly Catholic maternity hospital gave her a copy of Bill McKibben’s Maybe One as she was taking B. home.
B. is read to and taught by her parents until age five, after which she and her brother are home-schooled, helped by an informal association of neighborhood women, some with advanced degrees in languages, science, or math. Julia, who lives next door, teases B. and Benedict because she attended Head Start with most of the other kids in town, while the “Bs” had to stay home. Still, they’re friends. B. and Benedict often read children’s chapter books to Julia until she learns to read herself in third grade. After that, they only help her with the hard words.
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