Red Scarf Girl

Publishers Weekly Best Book * ALA Best Book for Young Adults * ALA Notable Children's Book * ALA Booklist Editors' Choice

Moving, honest, and deeply personal, Red Scarf Girl is the incredible true story of one girl’s courage and determination during one of the most terrifying eras of the twentieth century.

It's 1966, and twelve-year-old Ji-li Jiang has everything a girl could want: brains, popularity, and a bright future in Communist China. But it's also the year that China's leader, Mao Ze-dong, launches the Cultural Revolution―and Ji-li's world begins to fall apart. Over the next few years, people who were once her friends and neighbors turn on her and her family, forcing them to live in constant terror of arrest. And when Ji-li's father is finally imprisoned, she faces the most difficult dilemma of her life.

Written in an accessible and engaging style, this page-turning autobiography will appeal to readers of all ages, and it includes a detailed glossary and a pronunciation guide.

What happens when your country asks you to betray your family?

• Based on a True Story: Experience the harrowing events of the Cultural Revolution through the eyes of twelve-year-old Ji-li Jiang, whose world is turned upside down overnight.
• Political Persecution: Watch as friends become enemies and Ji-li's family is targeted due to their ‘black’ class status, facing public humiliation, home raids, and imprisonment.
• Coming of Age: A powerful story about losing one’s innocence and being forced to make impossible choices in a world where the rules change without warning.
• 1960s Shanghai Setting: Journey back to a terrifying and confusing time in China's history, brought to life through the vivid, personal account of a girl who lived through it.

Ji-li Jiang was born in Shanghai, China, in 1954. She graduated from Shanghai Teachers' College and Shanghai University and was a science teacher before she came to the United States in 1984. After her graduation from the University of Hawaii, Ms. Jiang worked as an operations analyst for a hotel chain in Hawaii,then as budget director for a health-care company in Chicago. In 1992 she started her own company, East West Exchange, to promote cultural exchange between Western countries and China.