Henry and the Kite Dragon – Written by Bruce Edward Hall, illustrated by William Lowe
Philomel Books
The story of a culture clash between two rival groups of young boys—Chinese boys from Chinatown and Italian boys from Little Italy—takes place in New York City in the 1920s and is based on an incident in Hall’s father’s life. The boys live in adjacent neighborhoods, but are worlds apart culturally, or so they think. Henry Chu, a young Chinese boy, loves building, decorating and flying kites with his mentor and friend Mr. Chin, affectionately known as Grandfather. Unfortunately, Tony Guglione and his friends from Little Italy don’t have the same respect for these beautiful creations and destroy the kites again and again. Henry and his friends confront them in the park assuming the attack was aimed at them, and are surprised to find that their motives are not what they thought, and they share more in common than the sky above their apartment buildings. Low’s realistic two-page spreads capture the emotions of the boys, the vibrancy of the neighborhood, and the beauty of the soaring kites. There is much to be learned from this story, and the lessons apply to students of all ages.
Possible discussion pathways:
- What does it mean to have empathy for others?
- Why is compromise important in building friendships?
- How can we build empathy in our classrooms? How do we learn about and so that understand the world from someone else’s point of view?
- Geography: who lives in our school neighborhood? How do we get to know our neighbors? What are ways we can help the people in our neighborhood?
- Immigration: where did people come from who live in our school neighborhood? Why did they journey here and what can we learn from them?
- Cultural differences: how do we learn about and celebrate the cultures represented in our classroom?
