Growing Up under a Red Flag

March 1, 2024
Author Compestine recalls her experiences growing up during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It's 1966, and the author is just 3 years old. Young Ying's parents are doctors and among the educated dissenters targeted by Mao Zedong. Her father teachers her English, and Ying dreams about going to America to eat food with funny names such as Twinkies and Tater Tots. But by the time she's 5, people are banned from speaking foreign languages and reading books in English, letters are monitored, and Western items are destroyed. The city walls are oppressively adorned with propaganda, and everyone is forced to don Mao uniforms and conform to a new way of life. Accused of being an American spy, Ying's father is arrested, and she grapples with censorship, scarcity, and a loss of independence over the course of the next decade until Mao's death in 1976. The author uses simple, clear language to make complex political ideas more accessible to young audiences. While the emotional resonance of some scenes feels muted due to the sheer amount of history that the tale covers, Liu's artwork helps add depth with nuanced facial expressions, thoughtful details, and eye-catching visual compositions. The limited yet vibrant palette and the style of the illustrations are fittingly reminiscent of vintage Chinese propaganda posters. A vivid glimpse into a childhood under communist rule. (author's note, photographs) (Picture-book memoir. 6-10)

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March 15, 2024
Grades 2-4 *Starred Review* In the wake of her powerful autobiographical novel, Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party (2007), Compestine offers in picture-book format a briefer but more direct memoir of years growing up during China's repressive Cultural Revolution. She begins by recalling how her father taught her English while telling her enticing tales of San Francisco, where he studied medicine and the food had funny names like "hot dogs" and "Twinkies." She then tracks the growing fear of the brutal, intrusive Red Guard hoodlums who eventually broke in to take her father to prison; of living with food scarcities; of the awful day her mother found lice in her hair and had to cut it off; and, following the death of Chairman Mao in 1976 when she was 13, the joyful return of her father, all of which is capped, 10 years later, by a family get-together in San Francisco (over hot dogs and Twinkies). Illustrating events in an appropriately Socialist Realist style, Liu depicts human figures standing and gesturing in broad, dramatic poses, with exaggerated expressions of fear or fervor to reflect the tenor of the moment, against backgrounds marked with revolutionary posters and other exactly drawn details. An intense account of life in an authoritarian regime, relevant to our times.

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Starred review from March 18, 2024
Compestine’s childhood informs this tense account of 10 years under Mao Zedong’s oppressive rule. Born in Wuhan, China, the book’s narrator is three years old in 1966, when Mao declares a Cultural Revolution to regain power over the government. Her parents were doctors, her father a surgeon trained by an American who left Wuhan when the Communists began to rule China. Though she learns English and reads with her father, who “loved my curiosity and strong spirit,” such activities must be conducted in secret, and the Cultural Revolution soon encompasses electrical outages, food rationing and scarcity, mandated uniforms, and the removal of individuals who don’t conform. Her father is targeted following the receipt of a letter from the U.S., and the Red Guard storms their home, arresting him as an American spy. Debut illustrator Liu gives the ink and digitally colored artwork the feel of vintage Chinese art and design, strengthening an already gripping historical narrative. Ages 6–9.

Starred review from July 12, 2024

Gr 3-6-Ying vividly describes the impacts of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution on Chinese citizens. Her parents worked in healthcare and regularly corresponded with friends in San Francisco. Ying's father taught her English in the evening and read her fairy tales. When the Cultural Revolution started, Ying was told to hide her English skills. Food and goods became scarce and were rationed. Her family was forced to board with Comrade Li, a member of the Red Guard, who eventually accused her father of being an American spy. She watched as her father was dragged off to prison. Ying kept her hopes up with a hidden picture of the Golden Gate Bridge. As the revolution wound down, following the death of Mao, Ying saw Comrade Li sent to prison and her father's return. After college, Ying came to the United States to study and finally saw the Golden Gate Bridge in person. Written from a young child's perspective, this book will have readers feeling Ying's fear and anger at the loss of her English lessons-and her father. Detailed color, pen-and-ink drawings capture the emotions of the Chinese people under the repression of the revolution. A mix of double-page illustrations and single pages with cartoon panels reinforce the story, presenting small details that reappear later in other drawings. An author's note provides more details on Ying's life and photos of her and her parents. VERDICT A fascinating memoir of living during a tumultuous time and its impact on China, this is matched with rich illustrations and will engage readers in this part of Chinese history. Strong first buy.-Tamara Saarinen

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2024
In this picture-book memoir, Compestine recounts her upbringing during China's Cultural Revolution, which began in 1967 when she was three. Through audience-appropriate language, Compestine describes the terror her family experienced when her father was falsely arrested for being a spy. "Our door was kicked open. Comrade Li stormed inside." Her story ends with hope as the Cultural Revolution is brought to a close and her father is released. Liu's colorful ink illustrations convey the family's anguish and despair along with moments of light. An author's note is appended.

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)