As I sit in my office at JIAB headquarters, the Fall winds are whispering loudly and the leaves are tumbling down from the trees and quietly pelting the ground. As the weather in Maryville, TN turns chillier, and the autumn winds bring an end to the colorful leaf-watching activities, I can’t help secretly wishing I could go fly a kite!
One of our favorite things to do in April is fly our kites at our local kite festival in the park. Granted, it’s not April, but I do enjoy the childlike fun affiliated with flying a kite. To get everyone in the spirit of Kite Flying we pulled out some of our favorite books to read and created 9 Kidlit Books About Kites. I love the multicultural nature of these books as well. Hope our list inspires you as well.
Kite Flying by Grace Lin – The wind is blowing which makes for a good day to fly kites. Come enjoy this family as they make a dragon kite together.
The Legend of the Kite by Chen Jiang Hong – A grandfather and his grandson build a kite for thier local kite festival. Also included is the history of China’s kite flying tradition.
Stuck by Oliver Jeffers – Floyd’s kite gets stuck in a tree and he has to figure out how to get it down. First he throws his shoe which also gets stuck. He then decides to throw the other shoe which ends up with the first shoe and the kite stuck in the tree. This is only the beginning of a long list of hysterically funny things which get thrown up into the tree to unstuck the kite. This is such a great read!
Days with Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel – Frog and Toad spend their days together flying kites, celebrating Toad’s birthday, and having lots of fun together.
Kites: Magic Wishes that Fly Up to the Sky by Demi – One of my favorite author/illustrators, Demi tells the story of how kites came to be. A long time ago in China a woman commissioned an artist to paint a dragon kite for her son. It was the mother’s hope that this beautiful dragon which stood for wealth, wisdom, power, and nobility would be seen by the gods in heaven who would assist her son in growing up to be big and strong. Demi’s art is exquisite in this great book.
How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning by Rosalyn Schanzer – Look into the world of Benjamin Franklin and discover how he used lightening and a kite to make people’s lives safer.
The Kite Festival by Leyla Torres – One Sunday morning, Fernando Florez and his multi-generational family go to town and discover a kite festival. With all the stores closed they have to work together to create a kite. This is such a sweet story.
Henry and the Kite Dragon by Bruce Edward Hall – Henry lives in Chinatown in New York City and loves to make kites with his grandfather Chin. While Henry and his grandfather fly their kites in the park, kids from Little Italy keep throwing rocks at them and destroying the beautiful kites. Henry and his friends decide that enough is enough. This book is based on a true story in 1920 when two groups of kids form idfferent cultures came face to face to discover they have much more in common than differences.
The Best Winds by Laura Williams – A classic Korean tale about Jinho and his grandfather who teaches him the art of kite making.
I hope you have many wonderful days reading about kites and good wind to go and fly a few!
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