The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain

Award-winning children's book author and illustrator Peter Sís grew up in Prague, Czechoslovakia after World War II, and came to the U.S. in the 1970s. This remarkable autobiographical picture book, told in the third person, is about the making of an artist in a place where creativity was discouraged, free thought was considered dangerous and subversive, and the Soviet Union controlled the government and its citizens. The text at the bottom of each the page is a simply told description of an unnamed boy's passion for art as he grows up. On the margins of the paneled illustrations are captions that list the many restrictions, ordered by the Czech government, that governed his life. Sís's tiny crosshatched pen and inks start out mostly monochromatic, with touches of red flags and neckerchiefs to show the uniformity imposed on people. From drawing what he was told in school and not questioning the status quo, his life was transformed. The catalyst? The Beatles. Suddenly everyone wanted to be a rock star and grow long hair. Prague Spring of 1968 promised freedom, but then came the Russian tanks. Interspersed in the narrative are double-pages of chronological excerpts from Sís's own journals, from 1954-1968; the Introduction and Afterword fill in still more details. For explaining the difference between a democratic society and a dictatorship, Sís's book is extraordinary. Google the following words—YouTube Peter Sis The Wall—and watch the remarkable little movie Sís made about the book. Compare and contrast the differences of growing up in Prague back then and America now. Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine and Red Scarf Girl by Ji Li Jiang are about growing up at in the same era in another totalitarian society, China, during its repressive Cultural Revolution.

Reviewed by : JF.

Themes : AUTOBIOGRAPHY. PICTURE BOOKS FOR OLDER READERS. COMMUNISM.