As a digital subscriber, you’ll receive unlimited access to Horn Book web exclusives and extensive archives, as well as access to our highly searchable Guide/Reviews Database.
To access other site content, visit The Horn Book homepage.
To continue you need an active subscription to hbook.com.
Subscribe now to gain immediate access to everything hbook.com has to offer, as well as our highly searchable Guide/Reviews Database, which contains tens of thousands of short, critical reviews of books published in the United States for young people.
Thank you for registering. To have the latest stories delivered to your inbox, select as many free newsletters as you like below.
No thanks. Return to article
(3)
4-6
Hong's illustrated memoir of his youth makes the deprivations of the Cultural Revolution starkly apparent even as it limns a childhood that was universal in many ways. Panel illustrations are rendered with bold, expressive lines. Touches of red in an otherwise somber palette provide energy and dramatic reinforcement of the period's politics, as well as counterpointing the text's matter-of-fact tone.