1 of 1 copy available
ALA Best Book for Young Adults
ALA Notable Children's Book
ALA Booklist Editors' Choice
In the tradition of The Diary of Anne Frank and I Am Malala, this is the incredible true story of one girl's courage and determination during one of the most terrifying eras of the twentieth century.
It's 1966, and twelve-year-old Ji-li Jiang has everything a girl could want: brains, popularity, and a bright future in Communist China. But it's also the year that China's leader, Mao Ze-dong, launches the Cultural Revolution—and Ji-li's world begins to fall apart.
Over the next few years, people who were once her friends and neighbors turn on her and her family, forcing them to live in constant terror of arrest. And when Ji-li's father is finally imprisoned, she faces the most difficult dilemma of her life.
Written in an accessible and engaging style, this page-turning, honest, and deeply personal autobiography will appeal to readers of all ages.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
April 1, 2016 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781490669595
- File size: 177225 KB
- Duration: 06:09:13
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Twelve-year-old Ji-li, devoted Communist follower of Mao Zedong and Liberation Army hopeful, is sympathetically portrayed by Christina Moore. As the memoir opens, Ji-li is believable in her intelligence, her self-esteem, her love of family and Communism. She is just as credible in her growing discomfort, fear, and despair when, in 1966, China's Cultural Revolution calls into question first her ancestry, then her parents' politics, and finally her own loyalty. Ji-li's voice, that of an impressionable child striving to please, grows more and more desperate as the Revolutionaries accuse her family of capitalist crimes, arrest her father, destroy her home. While Moore's first-person narration is faithful to Ji-li throughout, her voicing of other characters is occasionally forced or repetitive. Nevertheless, the reading is exceptionally engaging. T.B. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine -
Starred review from October 27, 1997
The passionate tone of this memoir, Jiang's first book for children, does not obstruct the author's clarity as she recounts the turmoil during China's Cultural Revolution. It is 1966, and Ji-li, a highly ranked student, exceptional athlete and avid follower of Mao zealously joins her classmates in denouncing the Four Olds: "old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits." Tables are turned, however, when her own family's bourgeois heritage is put under attack. Even when the 12-year-old's dreams of a successful career are dashed (as quickly as her opportunities to attend a prestigious high school and to join youth organizations), and she must watch in horror as relatives, teachers, neighbors and friends are publicly humiliated and tortured, her devotion to ingrained Communist principals remains steadfast ("It was only after Mao's death that I knew I was deceived," she says in the epilogue). Jiang paints a detailed picture of everyday life in Shanghai ("Almost every Sunday afternoon Dad wanted to take a long nap in peace, and so he gave us thirty fen to rent picture books") while slowly adding the dark strokes of political poison that begin to invade it. Her undidactic approach invites a thoughtful analysis of Ji-li's situation and beliefs. She astutely leaves morals and warnings about corruption and political control to be read between the lines. Ages 10-up.
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