 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Tibet Through the Red Box
- By Peter Sis
- Genre: Historical Fiction
Common Sense Media says
The meandering, dreamy story may limit its appeal.
Parents say
Kids say
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that there is nothing of concern in this gorgeous, dreamy story.
What's the story?
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.
What families can talk about
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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AGE
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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| Author: | Peter Sis |
| Illustrator: | Peter Sis |
| Book type: | Fiction |
| Genre: | Historical Fiction |
| Publisher: | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Publication date: | January 1, 1998 |
| Number of pages: | 55 |
| Hardcover price: | $17.50 |
| Publisher's recommended age(s): | 9 - 12 |
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