The Red Piano

Gr 6—8—During China's Cultural Revolution (1966—1976), a young musician is sent to a labor camp, forbidden to play the piano, forced to labor in the fields and become "reeducated." But she manages to sneak out at night to play a piano hidden in Mother Han's home and even to copy into tiny notebooks music smuggled into the camp. When authorities discover what she has done, they denounce and humiliate her in front of everyone and destroy the instrument. Years later, after Mao's death, she is freed. Based on some events in the life of international concert pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei, this picture book is poetically told in the present tense and features an unnamed protagonist. Her passion for music shines in the author's words: "Her fingers fly across the keyboard. The day's woes are forgotten, along with the late hour, the tiredness and the danger." Barroux's stylized illustrations, most often large spreads, are colored solely in red and black. The red endpapers and washes throughout likely symbolize Mao's "little red book" of sayings mentioned in the text. Ominous backgrounds and figures outlined and colored in black emphasize the oppression endured by the labor-camp inhabitants. The girl is a tiny, powerless speck as she sneaks across the fields each evening, and larger as she crosses those same fields, free at last to face her future. Mao's picture and other propaganda appear on posters. There is a brief author's note on the Cultural Revolution and a website that directs teachers to an extensive discussion and resource guide.—Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT