This lovely chapter book is an autobiographical telling of Goo Yue's early life in Beijing. It shows how ordinary Chinese people dealt silently with the oppression that followed Mao Zedong's creation of the People's Republic of China. It also tells, from a young boy's perspective, of the Cultural Revolution that took place in 1966.

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The story is artfully told and gentle, yet it has a lot of depth. It shows ways in which people tried to preserve a small piece of freedom for their hearts in the midst of great government control. It shows how beauty, art and sensitivity can be liberating in hard times. I felt that the book had the 'typical Chinese' 'silent manner' about it, that bears a lot and says very little.

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This honest little book gives the reader a rare look into 20th century Chinese society. Poetically and wonderfully written. The illustrations are also great and fitting to the book.