The Story of Kites - Hardcover

Compestine, Ying Chang

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0823417158 ISBN 13: 9780823417155

Publisher: Holiday House, 2003

Synopsis

Long ago in China, three brothers--Ting, Pan, and K·ai--become tired of chasing birds from their family's rice fields and experiment with ways to make the job easier, telling how kites may have been invented.

About this title

About the Author

Award winning author and dynamic public speaker, Ying is the author of many children's books, cookbooks and a novel. Ying has visited schools throughout the US and abroad, sharing with students her journey as a writer, how her life in China inspired her writing, and the challenges of writing in her second language. Ying is the spokesperson for Nestle Maggi and Celestial Seasonings and a regular contributor to the national magazines Cooking Light, Ski, EatingWell, Self, Men's Health, and Delicious Living and Diablo. She was the food editor for Body & Soul, a Martha Stewart magazine that focuses on healthy living. Ying has lectured on a variety of subjects at writer's conferences and universities, aboard cruise ships, on television and radio programs, and for numerous other organizations. A native of China, she now lives in Colorado with her family.

YongSheng Xuan is a distinguished artist throughout the Chinese and North American art community. He has worked in a variety of categories including oil painting, acrylic painting, pottery, sculpture, paper cutting, illustrations, and ceramic painting. Having studied and worked in both Eastern and Western cultures, Xuan's ability to merge and celebrate cultural differences has won him a great deal of praise. This ability, combined with working in such a variety of media, enables him to design for wide variety of audiences. Currently living in Royal Oak, Michigan, Xuan provides illustrations for children's books and magazine through the publisher Holiday House, as well as Spider and Cricket Magazine, Sinorama Magazine in Taiwan, and others. In additional to illustration work, Xuan provides art seminars to local colleges.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3-The creative Kang brothers are back, once again inventing a practical solution to a common problem-in this case, keeping birds out of the rice fields. Shooing them away is time-consuming so the boys decide to make some wings of their own. Of course, when they try using them, they come crashing down. After some experimentation with paper and chopsticks, the youngsters come up with an idea that works. The villagers are so taken with the objects that the brothers send floating into the sky that the Kang family opens China's first kite factory. The black lines outlining intense colors give Xuan's lively cut-paper pictures a feeling of action and life as well as a sense of traditional Chinese art. Pale blue borders frame the white backgrounds of many of the illustrations. The book ends with directions for making and flying a kite safely, and in an author's note, Compestine relates what is actually known about the development of kites in China. Demi's Kites (Crown, 1999) and Jane Yolen's The Emperor and the Kite (Philomel, 1983) speculate about kite development in China, but the playfulness and creativity of the Kang brothers make this version especially appealing.
Barbara Scotto, Michael Driscoll School, Brookline, MA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Holiday House
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0823417158
• ISBN 13: 9780823417155
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Xuan Yongsheng