Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

In this book Amy Hua describes how she berated, abused, and tortured her children toward excellence. While her commitment toward her children's violin virtuosity was unwavering, her accompanying lack of emotional intelligence was disturbing. I found myself wishing I was one of the dogs in the family. At least they got to run and were not driven to tears each night over 6 hour long violin practice sessions. I appreciate and understand her desire for her children to believe in their abilities and push toward excellence, I just found her methods, from the humiliations bordering on or crossing into abuse very upsetting. That her family members and husband would stand by while it happened is also upsetting. I agree that Westerners may coddle their children too much at times, but the lack of any emotional read or focus on the 'spirit' of the children in this family was sad to me. I was interested in reading this book as we had lived a year in China and sent our children to Chinese elementary school, but found it poorly written and disturbing. Not recommended.