Spirit of PaperTigers Project: Little Leap Forward
Much has been written already about SPT book choice Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing by Guo Yue and Clare Farrow (Barefoot Books, 2008) in PaperTigers, but one more post won’t hurt, I’m sure! This book was selected as an SPT book because it told a good story and was beautifully illustrated. Little Leap Forward, the boy in the story, lives in Beijing in 1966. He captures a songbird, but it does not sing. Why? Set as the story is at the advent of the Cultural Revolution; the caged bird becomes a metaphor for the larger scene about to unfold. The story is powerfully and simply told. I found myself near tears, reading at the end, at how Little Leap’s life was mirrored in the biography of one of its writers, Guo Yue. The story also made the ‘leap,’ as it were, to the stage as well in a theatre production in the UK which PT contributor, Marjorie wrote about in this post.
Little Leap Forward is an illustrated novel and is for middle readers. It made an interesting counterpoint to the other selected SPT title, Grace Lin’s Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, a story about a spirited young Chinese girl and her adventures in a mythical and magical ancient China. Although China is loosely the connection between these two books, they are as different as — well, apples and oranges! Both, however, are ripping good reads and are also gorgeously produced. Do check them out if you have a chance.
