Kites: Magic Wishes That Fly Up to the Sky

“In brilliant colors and on spacious double-page spreads, Demi depicts the origin of the Chinese holiday Ch’ing Yang or The Double Ninth Festival, a festival of kites that takes place on September 9, the ninth day of the ninth month. Long ago in China . . . [a woman] went to a painter of holy pictures . . . and requested a picture of a dragon, ‘a symbol of wealth, wisdom, power, and nobility,’ but instead of an ordinary holy picture she requested the painting on a kite, in order to ‘fly it right up to the sky [so] the gods in heaven will see it immediately.’ Soon everyone wanted kites for their wishes and prayers, and finally, Ch’ing Yang was born and is celebrated to this day. The kites are what’s important here, and Demi fills the pages with airily desirable kites in the shapes of birds, insects, reptiles . . . and symbols captioned with their attributes. . . . This is a celebratory sort of book that is going to inspire some serious kite-making/kite-flying activities.”– The Bulletin