This from my own Rabid Reader who is in the 5th grade:
Revolution is Not a Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine is a memoir about Compestine’s childhood. She grew up in the city of Wuhan during the Cultural Revolution. In the story Compestine’s is a brave girl named Ling. Several events in the story show Ling’s bravery.
The first example is when the Red Guards barged into Ling’s House and take her father away. Ling had to live with her mother for almost two years. Ling was very brave in this situation to live without her father. She knew was that her father would come back.
The second example is when Red Guards tore up her mother’s pearl necklace and Ling’s doll Bao-Bao. They also tore up one their chairs. She was brave enough to say to the Red Guards, “I hate you!” The guards said, “We are doing our job. If the enemy hates us we should keep on doing it.”
The third example is when Ling goes to school and Gao, the young pioneer, beats her up. He throws an abacus and a ball at her. The next day when Ling returns to school she gets revenge by throwing the abacus at Gao. She pins him to the ground and punches him in the face and Gao bleeds everywhere. Gao yells, “Help! She is punching me. She is killing me.”
The final example of Ling’s bravery is when the lice in Ling’s hair becomes so bad she is forced to cut all her hair off. In Ling’s culture cutting all of your hair off can be very embarrassing. When Ling went to school, Gao did not say a word. Ling was expecting him to say something mean.
Ling’s experiences teach us that sometimes to be free we must be brave. Being brave means standing up to people that try to harm you and protecting your family. Ling was a brave girl who would fight for her freedom.
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