Girl Under a Red Moon: Growing Up During China's Cultural Revolution

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I found out that this was a true story after I was halfway through the book. Da Chen's sister was a model student, classroom monitor and was expected to be appointed to the Red Guard for her efforts. But she did not receive the red armband. Instead, she was called to the stage of her school and the principal announced that the school had made a mistake in allowing her so much authority when her grandfather had been a landowner. Stripped of her honors and publically humiliated, she ran home where she was advised to run away before the Red Guards came to beat her. She was given the name of a schoolteacher in a village over the mountains. Her little brother came with her and they moved into the school where the.y helped pay by doing housework, planting food and cooking. Their idyllic existence was disrupted when the Red Guard came, made trumped-up rape charges against the schoolteacher, made him kneel on glass while being beaten. That is about as graphic as the story gets.The question is whether children should be exposed to the pain of the world and I would answer "Yes." I learned to read on a Victorian book on slavery. My son was three when we watched the black and white version of Les Miserables. Two weeks later, out of the blue he opined, "I don't think Jean Valjean should have been put in jail for stealing a loaf of bread." My 4th-grade teacher read us a Scholastic book on the Soviet invasion of Budapest. I firmly believe that by addressing the imperfections of the world, we provide our children with new avenues in thinking about how to make the world better. A light hand is best, but this book is a good cautionary tale.

I loved this book. It started out a bit slow, and the narrator was a bit hard to follow, but that was only the first 20 pages or so. It took me 2 days to read the first 37 pages, and one night to read the rest of the book, because it had gotten so interesting so fast. I am an adult, and this book seems like it was aimed towards children in late elementary school and early middle school. The reading level is middle to late elementary school, but the content is middle school at the earliest. I wasn't even aware of the cultural revolution until I was much older, and this book added so many details and illustrations that I feel like I have a solid understanding of a lot of what was going on on the most basic level, through the eyes of a young child.However, this book does have some plot twists that may be out of a child's understanding and might be difficult for a parent to explain. The young child narrator in this book was forced to see and experience things that many American or European kids would have absolutely no understanding of and be very frightened and confused after reading. I believe that raising kids to be oblivious of the realities of the world outside of what they know leads to an ungrateful and self-absorbed mentality that we need to prevent if we want to maintain our quality of life in the future, so I think this book is a step in the right direction.I think kids would also get a big kick out of the narrator's descriptions of many everyday experiences at that time in China that seem completely unbelievable... smoked squid jerky is one that comes to mind.

This was an amazing read. We traveled to China 2 years ago to adopt our son, and my daughters (age 9 - 12) have been devouring anything China related since then. This book is a first person autobiographical account of a child (actually relating the stories of two children, aged 8 and 13) during the Cultural Revolution. The story is heartbreaking and gripping. Some of the material is a little old for the age of my daughters, but it has been softened compared to what I'm certain it was historically. There was a brief explanation of the Cultural Revolution but really did not explain all they needed to know -- like Marxism, bourgeouis, etc. But those terms were easy to explain. Other subjects -- rape, physical punishment . . . not as much. It was hard for my daughters to see the China they loved be less than idyllic.I think this is a book that is completely worth reading and full of lessons. It has certainly led to in depth and thoughtful discussions in this household. We are not a family that hides the truth -- we have discussed nazis, labor camps, busing, abuse . . . But the subject matter is such that you should read ahead of your child so you can be prepared to answer difficult and troubling questions.

Girl Under a Red Moon is a real and dramatic look at life in China during the Communist takeover. This is not a happy book as it follows the life of a little girl, Sisi, who is crushed under the rules and regulation of the new China. Her life is turned upside down as she strives to fit in. Her family history works against her as the new regime lays the burden of guilt on generations that follow, in this case, private land owners.This is an important book for youngsters to read. It is important to realize that social justice is looked on from skewed and biased perspectives in other regions of our world. It’s important to see political change through the eyes of a protagonist with whom they can identify. I think kids should be at least Jr. High level or mature 6th graders for this book.Since it will be parents reading these reviews I dare to quote from the end of the book as under these circumstances it will not be a spoiler: “Sisi never went back to school, it would have been tempting a tiger’s wrath. She never even ventured near the school. In the town of Yellow Stone she was forgotten as were many used and forgotten creatures but the Land of Yellow Stone remembered her.” Don’t be afraid, the ending is good. This is a powerful book.