[.ca] Kite Flying (ISBN 0375815201)

Simple, colorful, and like a kite.. surprising in direction:
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.

High-flying fun:
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.