Nine year old Ling lives through China's Cultural Revolution, in a story that's informed by the author's own experiences as a child during that time. It's not an autobiography or a memoir, though because of Compestine's history there's a genuine sense of realism here, and a convincing depiction of the confusion and sense of constant, uncomprehending threat that she must have felt herself. Books like this, told from a child's perspective, must I think be very difficult to write because the author has to balance the naïve and ignorant perspective of the child with undercurrents that older readers will pick up on. In effect, it's almost two stories told in parallel, and it's really very well done here. I gobbled it all down in one sitting and was sorry when it was over.