Little Green

In this stunning, lyrical memoir that includes a curriculum guide, author Chun Yu recalls the Chinese Cultural Revolution from the perspective of a ten-year-old.

When Chun Yu was born in a small city in China, she was born into a country in revolution. The streets were filled with roaming Red Guards, the walls were covered with slogans, and reeducation meetings were held in all workplaces. Every family faced danger and humiliation, even the youngest children.

Shortly after Chun’s birth, her beloved father was sent to a peasant village in the countryside to be reeducated in the ways of Chairman Mao. Chun and her brother stayed behind with their mother, who taught in a country middle school where Mao’s Little Red Book was a part of every child’s education. Chun Yu’s young life was witness to a country in turmoil, struggle, and revolution—the only life she knew.

“True to a child’s bewildered viewpoint and augmented by occasional, small black-and-white family photos” (Booklist), this memoir, complete with a curriculum guide, is a stunning account of a country in crisis and a testimony to the spirit of the individual— no matter how young or how innocent.