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Tibet Through the Red Box

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 9, age appropriate for kids over 11; suggested age 11.

  • Is it any good?

    4.0
  • Common Sense says

    The meandering, dreamy story may limit its appeal.

Why We Rated This on for Ages 11 and Up

What to watch out for

  • Messages:

    The Chinese portray the Tibetans as savages.
  • Violence:

    The author's father is missing for a long time.
  • Sex:

    Not an issue.
  • Language:

    Not an issue.
  • Consumerism:

    Not an issue.
  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Not an issue.

What Parents Need to Know

This review of Tibet Through the Red Box was written by Matt Berman

Parents need to know that there is nothing of concern in this gorgeous, dreamy story.

Families Can Talk About

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  • Families can talk about the author's approach to the story. He adds layers of his own experience as a child. Would you prefer a more straightforward telling of the story, or do you enjoy his blend of memory and imagination?
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More on Tibet Through the Red Box

Book Summary

Lost in the Himalayas, the author's father kept an illustrated diary of his survival in Tibet. Sis mixes excerpts from this diary with his own memories and artwork to cast a peculiarly Tibetan spell, one in which past and present, fiction and nonfiction, memory and dreams are all mixed together.

Is It Any Good?

An amazing confluence of history, memory, and the magic of dreams, this sophisticated picture book is based in reality, though it shoots off in several unexpected directions. He uses sketches from his father's diary and many more drawn directly from the younger Sis' imagination. Mandalas, mythical figures, Tibetan architecture and landscape, dreamscapes, decorative patterns, and scenes from the stories are woven together to form a book as colorful, rich, and complicated as a piece of Tibetan fabric. This is a work of literary, visual, and historical art unlike anything else ever published.

What little story there is just ends with the author's father reaching Potala and meeting the Dalai Lama. But this isn't meant to be a storybook -- it's a book of memories and dreams, rooted in reality but not clinging to it. It is really for older readers -- who may need to be encouraged to try it.

Publisher’s Details

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Publication date: 1/1/1998
Number of pages: 55, Price: $17.50 (hardcover)
Read Alone: 11+

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Most Recent Reviews

  1. Parent Reviewer
    Kids ages: 12
    I rate this title on for age 9 and give it 4.0
    • My concerns are:
    • Excessive violence
    • My highlights are:
    • Educational

    good for tweens and older, iffy for young children

    has a lot of information, but in one part in the beggining a group of workers fall of a mountain when it collapes, otherwise pretty good.

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