Kite Flying

I like that this book starts as soon as you open the book.. not 3 pages later! On the inside cover with items one might use to make a kite. The next page shows the narrator and her family at the store picking out these items on a beautiful windy day made for kite flying! I like that Grace Lin uses the Chinese names for each of family members Baba- dad, Mei Mei - little sister, Jie-Jie older sister and everyone know who Ma-Ma is! Each page is a visual treat for the readers eyes. Once the story ends, the book doesn't end there Grace tells the readers a brief history of kites and how the Chinese thought that kites could carry away their bad luck & talk to the spirits in the sky. Kites where also in the shapes that the person flying it wished to possess. The author shares that a dragon kite symbolizes power, widom and wealth. She also talks China's annual kite-flying day the double 9 festival and how kite flying spread through out the world. Turn the page, this book continues on showing the reader different types of kites in all sorta of animals and what they stand for! I also love that when read the little blurp about the author she talks of flying kites with her family and that her favorite kite was a store bought kite called King Kong and how that one day while flying broke free and that Grace still wonders if it's still up there in the sky somewhere flying! I hope she's right!

Grace Lin's pages are filled with spirograph-like swirls, bright patterns, bold colors, and even more colors. The inside cover is filled with drawings of the tools needed to make a kite (paper, scissors, paint, glue, etc), while the back inside cover is filled with the meanings attributed to the types of kites you fly (dragons for wisdom, dragonflies for Summer, butterflies for love, fish for abundance, taods for long life, etc). The whole family is involved in making the feng zheng kite, and then they ascend a hill to fly it with other families. She closes the book by asking the reader to imagine what people's kites are saying about their wishes and desires.

In "Kite Flying," by Grace Lin, a family makes a dragon kite together and then takes it out for a flight. It's a simple story that effectively combines brightly colored illustrations with an easy-to-read text. Sample text: "It is a good day for kites." It's an enjoyable story that is also a positive portrayal of a family at work on a project together.At the end of the book is a short supplemental article which describes the history of kite flying and discusses some Chinese traditions related to this activity. There is also an illustrated gallery of various animal kites: butterfly, crab, fish, etc.