Henry and the Kite Dragon

Henry and the Kite Dragon is a predictable trade book that is based on true events from the 1920s. This book is about how two different racial groups that never interact until someone makes a move. They discover that they have a lot more in common than they ever realized.
This is a great story to read in the classroom at anytime, but specially when children are having a difficult time connecting with others of different backgrounds and different races. This book is a great way to discuss issues of this nature, diversity and acceptance, with students who have questions or concerns and are afraid to ask. They may also just be curious.
The illustrations in this book are beautiful. They take the story to the next level and enhance the show more storyline. With bright vibrant colors that our painted with great detail this story will capture your attention. show less

Unless one takes a step in the direction of communication and understanding, it is easy to misread one's intentions. When young Henry Chu and his friend help Grandfather Chin construct and fly his beautiful, hand-made kites, drama commences with the neighboring Italians. In Chinatown the largest enjoyment for these children is flying kites and when the Italian boys throw rocks, ruining these kites multiple times, Henry becomes infuriated. Grandfather Chin advises against confrontation and instead seeks help from the other children in Chinatown to create the best kite yet. When more rocks are thrown, the children confront the Italian boys, only to learn a little about their neighbor's culture and their homing pigeons. Henry and the Kite show more Dragon is a beautiful display of culture in Chinatown and how conflict can arise with misunderstandings among other cultures and their traditions. With guided help from a peaceful Grandfather Chin and the beauty of their animated dragon kite, communication brought about an insight that lead to compromise. In the end, everyone was able to enjoy pieces of of not only their culture, but of their neighbor's as well. show less

Based on the experiences of the author, the setting is Chinatown, New York City, in the 1920's. Mr. Chin is an older man who lives in the same building. He made stunningly beautiful kites, and showed the fascinated children how he made them. Sometimes, he allowed a few to help him fly them.

Chinatown was small and was composed of three tiny, narrow, crooked streets. Chinatown is fascinating because in the small, congested space, so very much occurred. There were stores where food could be purchased. Small pickled onions were only two cents.

But best of all, in Chinatown of 1920 lived an older man who made incredible kites to fly. Mr. Chin was called Grandfather because the young children had a lot of respect for him. His kites flew high, show more they were the prettiest, the biggest, most beautiful ever! As the children follow him up, up and up to the top of the building to the roof where the special kites are flown.

One day when Mr. Chin was flying a beautiful butterfly kite, a pigeon flew by and as they watched, children threw large stones at the kite. As the rocks hit the thing of beauty, it fell to the ground. Tony Guglione stumped on the kite. Now, the children were very angry and went looking for the Italian kids to fight with them.

Mr. Chin had a better idea, why not invite them to help make a new kite! As the beautiful caterpillar kite they all made flew high in the sky, another pigeon flew by. Again, rocks hit the kite. Making the kids from Chinatown exceedingly angry, they wanted to fight.

In the end, Mr. Chin remained kind. When he flew the beautiful dragon kite, a pigeon flew by. The lesson learned that day was that the Italian children threw rocks because the kites seemed to be chasing the homing pigeons that were special pets.

When they all learned what was occurring there was peace and respect.

This is a beautiful story regarding miscommunication, and what can happen when all participate and learn. show less

This was a good children's story. The tale was simple enough for young children to enjoy, but had enough substance that older young readers could get a lot out of it. This story is refreshing and noteworthy in that it deals directly with inter-racial/inter-cultural conflict among children, and shows how they can learn to understand each other and get along. Children have to deal with racism and a lack of understanding across cultures as much as adults, and the direct treatment of these issues makes it compelling for young people.

Teachers could use this book to talk about racism and inter-cultural conflict and conflict resolution with young students. It is a good example of how communication can help to overcome the distance between show more young people of different cultures, and could also be read or introduced after such conflict arises in classrooms between students to generate thought and discussion. show less

Henry and the Kite Dragon is a fictional story written about true events that took place in Chinatown, New York in the 1920s. The story revolved around a kid named Henry, the neighborhood man Grandfather Chin, and the other kids in the neighborhood, and kids from a "rival" town called Little Italy. These two groups, the Chinese kids and the Italian kids, had never interacted with one another before. They just knew that if one race was on the playground, they didn't go on the playground. Through a little misunderstanding, Henry decides to confront the Italian kids since they had been damaging the Chinese's kids kites with rocks. Come to find out, the Chinese kids maneuvered their kites to chase what they thought were regular pigeons. The show more pigeons actually were pets to the Italian kids and they were damaging the kites to save their pigeons. After a small conversation, the Italian kids agreed to stop damaging the kites if the Chinese kids stopped scaring the pigeons off. Before the incident occurred, the two groups had never met. After Henry decided to cross the invisible boundary line, they realized they could live in harmony. Although this book was bad on true events, i doubt the feud between the two groups were resolved so easily. The message of the book was really important and can teach students not to judge so quickly without getting to talk to people first. The content of the book was also mature enough for 4th and 5th graders to read but easy enough for younger kids to understand. show less

A Chinese boy becomes angry when the Italian boys in his New York City neighborhood keep destroying the beautiful kites the boy has helped to make. When he gathers his friends to seek revenge, what they gain instead is understanding.

This is a gorgeously illustrated story based on true events that has a positive message for readers of all ages.

The story was about the authors fathers childhood and how he lived in an apartment building with an old man they called grandfather Chin. It was a great story to me about bringing kids together from two cultures together. The story took place in Chinatown, New York and Little Italy. The kids in Chinatown loved making kites with Mr. Chin and he always scared pigeons with his kites and that's when the kids from Little Italy would throw rocks at the kites and destroy them, which made the Chinese very upset that they confronted the Italian kids. It turned out that the pigeons were there pets and that sometimes the kites would scare them away to a point they would not return home. That is when the two groups worked together to decide when show more they could fly their kite and their pigeons and became friends. show less