McCaughrean, Geraldine. The kite rider.

HarperCollins, Trophy. 307p. c2001.0-06-4410919. $6.99. JS *

To quote from the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, July 2002: I would double star this if KLIATT allowed such a thing! And it isn't even really a YA novel as we generally consider them. It's quite amazingly imaginative, exotic, and challenging--and it is in the genre of historical fiction, not fantasy. The kite rider is a 12-year-old boy, living in China in the 13th century, at the time of the Kublai Khan. His name is Haoyou. He is talented with his hands and courageous, with a generous spirit; he is also naive and immature. It isn't only Haoyou's story, however, since his older cousin Mipeng, a young woman who is brilliantly insightful, is an essential part of this novel and shares his adventures, saving him from his naivete, which often results in foolishness. The fact that his naivete rests on the Chinese philosophy of blind obedience to one's superiors and to older relatives, even if they should prove to be mean-spirited and corrupt, ups the ante of interest in the meaning of family unity and sacrifice. The book is lengthy for a children's book, over 300 pages, enough to be filled with adventures and characters, all of which are dazzling. Haoyou does ride a kite, in a harness. flying high in the sky, making money from the awestruck audience who believe he can commune with their dead ancestors up in the clouds. He and Mipeng join an itinerant circus traveling to the court of Kublai Khan, the most powerful man in China now that his Mongol warriors have invaded China and conquered the Chinese people. The young man who has taken in Haoyou and Mipeng, who loves Mipeng, has his own agenda for taking his circus to the presence of the Kublai Khan. He too is wrestling with the Chinese way of obedience to parents, even if it means death.

The breathtaking images of so much of the story, of Haoyou flying, of the acrobats in the circus, the Mongol way of execution that avoids spilling blood on the ground, of the den of iniquity, so to speak, where Haoyou's mother must work, the ghastly uncle who must be obeyed, the other villain of the story, an evil man who lusts after Haoyou's mother and seeks the family's destruction--all make for a truly marvelous story. McCaughrean has won the prestigious Carnegie Medal in England for A Pack of Lies; this book too proves her expertise as an author. Claire Rosser, KLIATT