Rating: ***** 5 stars

Geraldine McCaughrean,
The Kite Rider.
Oxford University Press, 2001

The scene is China, at the time of Kublai Khan’s Mongol conquest. Haoyou, aged twelve, has seen his sailor father die when chosen to take part in an embarkation ritual to determine whether a ship’s voyage will be prosperous. A man is bound to a kite, a wind-tester, which is flown to supply an augury of success or failure. Haoyou’s father is the victim of a corrupt First Mate who hopes to marry his widow, Haoyou’s mother. But unlike his father, Haoyou is at home with flight. He is a kite-maker, and to protect his mother from the First Mate’s designs and the tyranny of family elders, he becomes also a kite-rider, taking his own dangerous turn to fly among the clouds. His skill and courage take him far into China, first as a new, crowd-stirring act in the Jade Circus, then as ‘eyes-in-the-sky’, a new reconnaissance weapon for the Khan’s army. McCaughrean’s novel has two main themes. One is family, the spiritual power of its dead, the often undeserved, misused authority of its living seniors, and the onus of duty and obedience on the young. To protect his family, Haoyou must violate the rigid code of conduct it has taught him. The other theme is the fear and ecstasy of flight, and the wondrous sky-realm of clouds, lightning, gods and spirits. The two subjects blend in an original and exciting story. Time and place are exotic, but Haoyou’s tough journey to mental freedom is thoroughly modern.

Peter Hollindale