A captivating exploration of the best ways to educate children in the twenty-first century, set inside one of the most celebrated - and most extreme - school systems in the world

When American journalist Lenora Chu moved to Shanghai with her little boy Rainey, she and her husband decided to enroll their rambunctious young son in China's state-run public school system.

Almost immediately, he began to develop surprising powers of concentration, became proficient in maths and learned to obey his teachers' every command. Yet Chu also noticed disturbing new behaviours. Whereas he used to scribble and explore, Rainey was now obsessed with staying inside the lines. He became fearful of authority figures and also developed a habit of obeisance outside school. 'If you want me to do it, I'll do it', he told a stranger who had asked whether he liked to sing.

What was happening behind the classroom doors?

Over the next few years, Chu followed Chinese students, teachers and experts from all stages of school, pulling back the curtain on a military-style education system in which even the youngest kids submit to high-stakes tests and parents are crippled by the pressure to compete. Yet as Chu delved deeper, she also discovered surprising upsides, such as the benefits of rote learning, competition as a motivator and the belief in hard work over innate talent.

Lively and intimate, beautifully written and reported, Little Soldiers asks us to reconsider the true value and purpose of education, as China and the West compete for the political and economic dominance of a new generation.