The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain

Author: Peter Sis
 
Illustrator: Peter Sis

Peach's Picks Rating:


Year of publication: 2007
 
City of publication: New York
 
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
 
ISBN: 978037437017
 
Author website: http://www.petersis.com
 
Illustrator website: http://www.petersis.com
 
Media used for illustrations: Mixed media; black ink and marker drawings accented with red, personal photos, personal journal entries, and propaganda posters
 

Annotation: Autobiographical picturebook of Peter Sis’ life (birth though mid-thirties) in Communist Czechoslovakia during the Cold War. He immigrates to the United States, where he finds political and intellectual freedom.

Personal reaction to the book: Powerful and moving personal account of growing up under Communist rule during the Cold War. The reader experiences Sis’ slow awakening from a childhood of brainwashing. Adolescence brings with it typical longings to experiment with and examine new ideas. There is a loosening in the strict Communist rule and Sis is able to experience Western culture while traveling through Europe. A change in political climate results with restrictions being imposed even more tightly on Eastern Bloc countries. Sis’ desire to live a creative life with personal freedom grows. His personal journals add poignancy to the story. The various styles of illustrations complement the text, transporting the reader into Sis’ emotional anxieties. The visuals increase the scope of the text and must be read carefully to fully understand the book’s content. The design and layout is a unique blending of propaganda posters, journals, personal photos, and black and white drawings accented with “Communist” red. Both the “Introduction” and “Afterword” are very important to the understanding of the story. The book is most meaningful if the reader is familiar with historical aspects of the Cold War, but every reader will identify with Sis’ longing for personal freedom. This is an outstanding example of a nonfiction picturebook for older readers.

General curricular connections:

• History / Cold War
• History / Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic
• Biographies
• Study of persecution / match with Maus by Art Spiegelman and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
• Current events / Ai Weiwei, Chinese artist and human rights activist

Specific example of curricular connection matched to State Standards:
Subject: History
Grade level: 10-11

Standards:

California State Standards

History – Social Studies Content Standards for Public Schools: Kindergarten through Grade 12

History-Social Science Content Standards for California Public Schools, Kindergarten through Grade Twelve

Grade 10

World History, Culture, and Geography: The Modern World

10.9 Students analyze the international developments in the post–World War II world.

2. Analyze the causes of the Cold War, with the free world on one side and Soviet client states on the other, including competition for influence in such places as Egypt, the Congo, Vietnam, and Chile.

11.9 Students analyze U.S. foreign policy since World War II.

2. Understand the role of military alliances, including NATO and SEATO, in deterring communist aggression and maintaining security during the Cold War.

3. Trace the origins and geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) of the Cold War . . .

5. Analyze the role of the Reagan administration and other factors in the victory of the West in the Cold War.

Recommended grade levels:
School Library Journal recommends the book for grades 4 and up

Booklist recommends the book for grades 7-10

Peach’s Picks Ratings recommends the book for grades 7 and up

Awards/Recognitions: 
Booklist starred review

Horn Book starred review

School Library Journal starred review

ALA Notable Children’s Books / Older Readers, 2008
NCTE Orbis Pictus Award recommended book, 2008

Robert F. Sibert Information Book Award, 2008

Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, 2008

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books Blue Ribbon Award / Nonfiction, 2007
Caldecott Honor, 2008

Note: This book was selected from "The Top Ten Favorites List / Summer Session 2009", San Jose State University, School of Library and Information Science, LIBR 271A, Genres & Topics in Youth Literature, Professor Partington. It is a work of nonfiction in the form of a graphic novel.

Metaphor: Pages 42 and 44; The Statue of Liberty representing personal and intellectual freedom

Metaphor: Page 24, Sis depicts himself as Van Gogh in the painting titled “The Scream”

Metaphor: Page 24, a maze showing no way out of Communism and the Eastern Bloc

Repetition: Throughout the book, strong horizontal fence-like lines are used

Repetition: Throughout the book, cross-hatched lines giving the illusion of fences are used

Repetition: Beginning on page 4 and continuing throughout the text, the word “COMPULSORY” is written in bold capital letters.

Repetition: Throughout the book, the author/illustrator depicts himself holding or displaying at least one of his drawings on nearly every page.

Symbolism: Through the book, secret police are depicted as pigs

Book cover picture retrieved from: http://us.macmillan.com/thewall