Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom is a 1983 children's book written by U.S. novelist Katherine Paterson. Set during the Taiping Rebellion in China, it focuses on Wang Lee, a 15-year-old peasant boy who is abducted into a secret rebel organization. Mei Lin, a female soldier, teaches Wang Lee to read and instructs him in the movement’s dogma. Wang Lee’s transition into being a soldier is marked with acts of violence and betrayal, and he is forced through difficult circumstance to learn humility as part of his training.
Following its publication, Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom received the Parents' Choice Award and was named the NCSS-CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies.
Famous quotes containing the words rebels, heavenly and/or kingdom:
“Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“Her heavenly form
Angelic, but more soft and feminine,
Her graceful innocence, her every air
Of gesture or least action, overawed
His malice, and with rapine sweet bereaved
His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought.
That space of Evil One abstracted stood
From his own evil, and for the time remained
Stupidly good, of enmity disarmed,”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“How we dwelt in two worlds
the daughters and the mothers
in the kingdom of the sons.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)