Ying Chang Compestine
  • Home
  • About
    • Spokesperson
    • Ying's Articles
    • Media Appearances
  • Bookcase
    • Novels >
      • Morning Sun in Wuhan
      • Revolution is Not a Dinner Party >
        • A Conversation with Ying: Revolution is Not a Dinner Party
        • Why I Wrote Revolution
      • Secrets of the Terra-Cotta Soldier >
        • New Asian Writing Interview
      • A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts >
        • On Becoming a Hungry Ghost
        • A Bird Out of the Cage
        • Ghosts to My Rescue
        • Ghosts of the Great Wall
        • True Friendship
        • Pretending to Be a Teacher
        • Every Word Counts
    • Picture Books >
      • The Chinese New Year Helper
      • Growing Up Under a Red Flag
      • Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu
      • Dragon Noodle Party
      • Little Red Riding Hood and the Dragon
      • The Chinese Emperor's New Clothes
      • The Runaway Wok
      • The Real Story of Stone Soup
      • D is for Dragon Dance
      • Crouching Tiger
      • Boy Dumplings
      • The Runaway Rice Cake
      • The Story of Chopsticks
      • The Story of Kites
      • The Story of Noodles
      • The Story of Paper
    • Cookbooks
  • School Visits
    • Preparing for a School Visit
    • Classroom Activities
    • Presentations
    • Writer in Residence
    • Testimonials
  • Public Speaking
    • Popular Lecture Topics
    • Spokesperson
    • Testimonials
    • PR Kit
  • Calendar
  • News
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
    • Spokesperson
    • Ying's Articles
    • Media Appearances
  • Bookcase
    • Novels >
      • Morning Sun in Wuhan
      • Revolution is Not a Dinner Party >
        • A Conversation with Ying: Revolution is Not a Dinner Party
        • Why I Wrote Revolution
      • Secrets of the Terra-Cotta Soldier >
        • New Asian Writing Interview
      • A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts >
        • On Becoming a Hungry Ghost
        • A Bird Out of the Cage
        • Ghosts to My Rescue
        • Ghosts of the Great Wall
        • True Friendship
        • Pretending to Be a Teacher
        • Every Word Counts
    • Picture Books >
      • The Chinese New Year Helper
      • Growing Up Under a Red Flag
      • Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu
      • Dragon Noodle Party
      • Little Red Riding Hood and the Dragon
      • The Chinese Emperor's New Clothes
      • The Runaway Wok
      • The Real Story of Stone Soup
      • D is for Dragon Dance
      • Crouching Tiger
      • Boy Dumplings
      • The Runaway Rice Cake
      • The Story of Chopsticks
      • The Story of Kites
      • The Story of Noodles
      • The Story of Paper
    • Cookbooks
  • School Visits
    • Preparing for a School Visit
    • Classroom Activities
    • Presentations
    • Writer in Residence
    • Testimonials
  • Public Speaking
    • Popular Lecture Topics
    • Spokesperson
    • Testimonials
    • PR Kit
  • Calendar
  • News
  • Contact
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

Picture
Growing Up Under a Red Flag
Picture
A stirring and magnificently illustrated picture-book memoir of the author’s childhood during the Chinese Cultural Revolution

Ying Chang Compestine was a young girl in 1966 when Mao launched his Cultural Revolution to reclaim power and eliminate non-communist values in the country. His army began punishing and arresting people who didn’t agree with him, foreign reading material was banned, and children were all required to dress in uniform and carry the Little Red Book of Mao’s teachings. It was a time of fear, mayhem, and scarcity that lasted until Mao’s death ten years later, when Ying was thirteen. Through those ten harrowing years, Ying’s parents found ways to secretly educate her and allow her dreams of visiting America to stay vibrant. Now she brings her childhood story and China’s history to life in this absorbing and beautiful picture book.
​

Penguin Random House
Book Shop
Amazon Books
Powell's
Barnes & Noble
Books A Million
Hudson Booksellers
Target

 

Book Trailer

Kirkus Review's FullyBooked Interview
Best Picture Book 


​Praise for Growing Up Under a Red Flag

★"A fascinating memoir of living during a tumultuous time...matched with rich illustrations and will engage readers...Strong first buy."
— School Library Journal
​

★"Illustrating events in an appropriately Socialist Realist style, Liu depicts human figures standing and gesturing in broad, dramatic poses, with exaggerated expressions of fear or fervor to reflect the tenor of the moment, against backgrounds marked with revolutionary posters and other exactly drawn details. An intense and account of life in an authoritarian regime, relevant to our times."
— Booklist

★ "Debut illustrator Xinmei Liu gives the ink and digitally colored artwork the feel of vintage Chinese art and design, strengthening an already gripping historical narrative."
—  Publisher’s Weekly

2024 Gold Standard Selection by the Junior Library Guild​

"...draws readers...into the vortex of suspicion..."
— The Wall Street Journal

“The author uses simple, clear language to make complex political ideas more accessible to young audiences. Liu’s artwork helps add depth with nuanced facial expressions, thoughtful details, and eye-catching visual compositions. The vibrant palette and the style of the illustrations are fittingly reminiscent of vintage Chinese propaganda posters. A vivid glimpse into a childhood under communist rule."
— ​Kirkus Reviews

Awards & Accolades

Wall Street Journal's Best Books of 2024: Children’s Books
Booklist's Editors' Choice: Books for Youth, 2024
Junior Library Guild Gold Standard
2024 Kirkus Best Picture Books of the Year
Common Sense Media 2024 Best of the Year List
2024 CALIBA Golden Poppy Finalist
Freeman Award Honorable Mention


Featured article with The Mercury News

Stage your own play!

Students can produce their own play with this Reader's Theater script from CYRM.
revolution_readers_theater.pdf
File Size: 336 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Find more classroom resources at TeachingBooks.net.

Resource Guide

Teachers can use this resource guide from California Young Reader's Medal to help teach Revolution.
pdfresizer.com-pdf-resize__1_.pdf
File Size: 425 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Find more classroom resources at TeachingBooks.net.

Teacher Notes from Amnesty International

Teachers can use this guide from Amnesty International UK to help classrooms learns about human rights.
Revolution Amnesty International
File Size: 576 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Find more classroom resources at TeachingBooks.net.

A Conversation with Ying

This book is based on your childhood in Wuhan, China, during the 1960s and 70s. Is Ling in many ways a fair representation of you growing up? What are some of the similarities and differences?

Ling’s childhood experiences are similar to my own. I was about Ling’s age when my family got caught up in the events of the Cultural Revolution. Ling’s personality is a lot like mine. Many of her emotions and reactions to events draw on my own experiences during the Cultural Revolution, and her way of thinking reflects the way I saw the world as a child. For this reason, developing Ling’s character was the easiest part of writing this book. I was a little spoiled, but I also had a fighting spirit. And like Ling, I yearned for freedom and dreamed about going to America.

Click here to read more.
Follow Ying on social media!
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Follow Ying on Social Media for Updates!