DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Mao's Last Dancer

Li Cunxin author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Penguin Random House Children's UK

Published:6th Jul '06

Should be back in stock very soon

Mao's Last Dancer cover

The true story of a poor Chinese peasant boy who, plucked unsuspectingly at the age of ten from millions of others across the land to be trained as a ballet dancer, turned the situation to his advantage to become one of the world's greatest ballet stars.
Simply told, with charm, humour and compassion and at times, great drama. His childhood, despite the terrible hardships, is drawn with love and affection and contrasts starkly with the seven lonely years of gruelling training at the Peking Dance Academy. At the age of l8, Li performs at the Houston Ballet school in the US, which leads to his dramatic defection.
This is a condensed edition, specially for younger readers, and has an Afterword especially for children.

ISBN: 9780141320861

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 21mm

Weight: 256g

352 pages