Compestine, Ying Chang (2007). Revolution is Not a Dinner Party. New York: Henry Holt and Company.The Cultural Revolution of China was a devastating time for many bourgeois families. Ling is the daughter of two doctors whose world is turned upside down in the early 1970s.
77th Annual California Book Award for Young Adult Literature
2008 ALA Best Books For Young Adults
2008 ALA Notable Children's Books
2007 Publishers Weekly Best Children's Fiction Book List
2007 San Francisco Chronicle Best Children's Fiction Book List
2008 Chinese American Librarian Association Best Book
2007 New York Public Library 100 Best Titles for Reading and Sharing
2007 Fall Book Sense Children's Picks
2007 Parent's Choice Silver Honor
2007 Cybils Award Nomination for Young Adult Fiction
2008 Tayshas Reading List (Texas)
2007 Chicago Public Library Best of the Best
2007 Cleveland Public Library Celebrate With Books
2007 Cuyahoga County Public Library Great Books for Kids
2008 Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People — CBC and the National Council for Social Studies
2008 IRA Notable Books for a Global Society
2008 NCTE Award
2008 Capitol Choices — Best Books of the Year, Washington, D.C.
2008 New York Public Library's Teen Age List
2008 Cooperative Children's Book Center — Best of the Year
2008 Bank Street College of Education — Best Children's Book
2008Notable Children's Book in the Language Arts
2008 Book of the Year Award — Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
2008 Women's National Book Association's Judy Lopez Memorial Awards Honor
2008-09 Maine Student Book Award
2008 Notable Children's Books in the English Language Arts
2009 ATPE Book of the Month
2009 Sakura Medal Book
2008-2009 Nominated for the Maine Student Book Award
2008 Among 15 books Ranked Best by Publisher's Weekly
2009 Nominated for the Nene Award of Hawaii
“Father held my hand tighter and walked faster without answering. Once in our apartment, he ran to the fireplace, lit a fire, and threw in his letters and books. Wisps of burned paper bumped around inside the fireplace like frightened black butterflies. He even threw in his red tie and the English book we had made together” (Compestine, pg. 81-82).
Such was the fate of any western or non-Chinese things in Communist China under Chairman Mao. Ling was only 10 years old and did not understand why her father would burn the things he cared for most. But that is what had to be done. Read this touching story based loosely on events the author experienced and people she knew in a country where freedom was not freely given.
I loved this book! It was sad at times, but it was an eye-opener of what some of the Chinese had to endure not too long ago. It amazes me how awful people can be to their fellow man, sending them to labor camps because they refuse to cut their hair. It made me think “what would I do in that situation? I would never betray family or friends!” But reading this book made me realize that no one truly knows how they would react in the situations some of these people were forced into.
Such was the fate of any western or non-Chinese things in Communist China under Chairman Mao. Ling was only 10 years old and did not understand why her father would burn the things he cared for most. But that is what had to be done. Read this touching story based loosely on events the author experienced and people she knew in a country where freedom was not freely given.
I loved this book! It was sad at times, but it was an eye-opener of what some of the Chinese had to endure not too long ago. It amazes me how awful people can be to their fellow man, sending them to labor camps because they refuse to cut their hair. It made me think “what would I do in that situation? I would never betray family or friends!” But reading this book made me realize that no one truly knows how they would react in the situations some of these people were forced into.
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