Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults

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"When we reached our courtyard, Comrade Li and the Red Guards were pasting new posters and slogans on tree trunks and all three buildings. The air was heavy with the smell of fresh ink. I spotted a white poster with Father's name on it in black ink. Over his name was a big red X, bright as blood.

" 'Why are they doing this, Daddy?' I whispered. 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 burnt 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. The fire slowly destroyed the picture of the little girl -- first her dress, then her ice cream, and finally her face and hair. Sitting in Father's large leather chair, I fought back tears, feeling my happy days were burning away with the girl.

"Father picked up the picture of the Golden Gate Bridge from above the fireplace. I held my breath as he stared at it. At last, he put it back. 'I can't do it. Not yet,' he mumbled. I let out my breath."

Ling's blissful childhood steadily unravels. First, half her family's apartment is confiscated to provide living quarters for Comrade Li, the new political officer for the hospital. Next, Dr. Wong, her father's best friend is taken away after being cited by Comrade Li as an enemy of the State. Then Ling is shunned and attacked at school for being from "a nonworking bourgeois family" because her father is a surgeon at the hospital rather than being a worker in a factory, in the army, or on a farm.

It does not matter that Dr. Wong and Ling's father had both previously turned down valuable opportunities to emigrate to America and practice medicine with Dr. Smith, their teacher from San Francisco but, instead, chose to put their energy into the new China.

Things continue to spiral downward:

"Father was soon ordered by Comrade Li to mop floors and scrub bathrooms in the hospital. He could no longer work as a doctor."

Ying Chang Compestine's gut-wrenching story, set in China in the 1970's, is being published as a middle school novel. Her editor explained to me that some names have been changed. But the events depicted here were the real deal for the author. She lived this tale of terror during her childhood and adolescence in the city of Wuhan during the era preceding Mao's death.

The book also serves as Compestine's ode to the father who struggled to provide her a happy and fulfilling childhood amidst the horrors of the Cultural Revolution, while also being steadfast in his determination to abide by and pass on the Physician's Creed that he had taken to heart, and of which he had hidden a copy in their home:

"...A great physician should not pay attention to status, wealth, or age. Nor should he question whether his patient is an enemy or friend."

I'm sure that when those who are familiar with my freedom-loving big mouth and attitude have the opportunity to read REVOLUTION IS NOT A DINNER PARTY, they will readily agree that I could well have been dead a long time ago had I suffered the fate of growing up an adolescent in Ling's world of Maoist China.

"Father had always told me knowledge was the most important thing in life. Was class struggle and excuse to punish good people? I felt frustrated that I had no one to whom I could ask my questions."

This past weekend I lugged or mailed nearly 75 lbs. of advanced reading copies from my trip to Book Expo in New York City. It is certainly hard to imagine that anything I picked up could be more riveting or significant than this one is.

Richie Partington, MLIS
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