Advanced Literature for Children

Sis, Peter. THE WALL: GROWING UP BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.

Prolific juvenile author Peter Sis gives us a most strange but beautiful autobiographical account of being young and living under a totalitarian regime. Sis writes of his life in Czechoslovakia under the shadow of Soviet Communist rule. Overall the writing is more sparse than the pictures but the combination is powerful and moving. The majority of the illustrations appear to be gray and black graphite and pink and red ink, but there are a few pages that are wildly multicolored. In chronological order Sis tells us of the ever more oppressive life in Prague. Using the words COMPULSORY, PROHIBITED, DISCOURAGED in caps and bold lettering is an effective technique. He writes of being forced to wear a red scarf, the symbol of the Young Pioneers Communist Youth Movement, being forced to learn Russian in school and the danger of practicing religion. Pink-red ink drawings have Stalin, Lenin, Krushchev and Brezhnev taking up the majority of the page. He entitles that as the “Time of Brainwashing” Peter’s tale is to him the story of his art because that is the one constant in his life, that he was always drawing………lines, shapes, people, then tank, then war. Drawing whatever he likes at home is the polar opposite to his school work where he draws what he is told. Forced to choose a Russian pen pal the letters are read and graded to reflect allegiance to the party. Particularly moving are excerpts from his journals, 1954-1963. He talks vividly of bits of the West filtering down into society. He wants blue jeans. He secretly tapes recordings of The Beatles. Then more journal entries are included from 1965-1968 when Sis leaves for England. In the center page ones sees a wild utopian kaleidoscope. The work looks like Peter Max! Sis draws the Western influences he is so grateful for, The Beatles and their Yellow Submarine, The Harlem Globetrotters, Jerry Garcia, Allen Ginsburg’s poetry. The journals have small multicolored pictures around the perimeter of the pages. Moving and factual this is a picture book best suited for grades 4 through adult. Information yes, but still a picture book.