Tibet Through the Red Box
By Matt Berman,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
The meandering, dreamy story may limit its appeal.
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What you will—and won't—find in this book.
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Based on 2 parent reviews
good for tweens and older, iffy for young children
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.
Talk to Your Kids 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?
Book Details
- Author: Peter Sis
- Illustrator: Peter Sis
- Genre: Historical Fiction
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Publication date: January 1, 1998
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 9 - 12
- Number of pages: 55
- Award: Caldecott Medal and Honors
- Last updated: July 12, 2017
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