The Red Piano

Publishers Weekly

This French picture book biography of Chinese concert pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei documents the years she spent in a re- education camp during the Cultural Revolution, earning a comparison to Chen Jiang Hong's Mao and Me (2008), with similarly somber brush and ink paintings and a narrative that pulls no punches. "Tonight marks the end of her fifth year in exile. Like thousands of others, her father, mother and four sisters have been dispatched to other camps. Pianos are criminal. Pianists are criminals." Zhu arranges to have a piano sent secretly into the country and practices for hours after punishing days in the fields. Barroux's red, black, and white paintings offer little comfort; when the piano is found and Zhu is condemned, the figures of the guards who excoriate her tower over her. Only Mao's death releases her, and even the ending is ambiguous: "She leaves beneath the pale light of the moon, clutching only her tiny, surviving notebooks." While Zhu's story makes for stark reading, it offers an impressive example of human resilience. Ages 7–9. (Jan.)

School Library Journal

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

Kirkus Reviews

It's 1975 in Communist China. For five years, a young girl has endured manual labor, filth and hunger in exile at a re-education camp. But tonight she will engage—once again—in an illicit act: the playing of the piano. In a place where musicians are criminals, she risks it all and is caught. The piano is smashed. Her sentence is lengthened—yet the music lives on. Based on international concert pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei's life, Leblanc's story gives insights into the Cultural Revolution and its impact. The text may be heavy-handed at times, but the story is ripe for discussion, with themes of self-expression and freedom, the affirmation of the individual through art and music as a form of resistance. Dazzling collage, pencil and paint illustrations from Barroux create a beautiful chiaroscuro of tension and release. Well-controlled expressive marks portray the young musician's isolation. The limited palette of black, white and red—the latter of which is used to create a sense of intensity—is evocative of Communist China propaganda. A worthy and beautiful tale for historical and cultural studies. (Picture book. 6 & up)