The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean (Multicultural Literature)

During the Song Dynasty, when his sailor father dies after being forced to be a wind tester, a young Chinese boy named Gou Haoyou, who is left to care for his mother, Qing’an, and his little sister, Wawa. Traditionally, when a ship is due to set sail, a man is volunteered to test the wind to see whether or not the conditions were fair for travel. After making a demeaning comment about his captain’s ship, Haoyou’s father is forced to be the wind tester and died. Following his father’s death, Haoyou had to fend off Di Chou’s (another sailor) advances to marry his mother and volunteers to be a wind tester that would take Di Chou away from his mother. Miao Jie, a circus leader for the Jade Circus, asked Haoyou to join his circus act and become a kite rider. After his great-uncle Bo's blessing, Haoyou travels with his cousin Mipeng through various towns until they found the Kublai Khan, a Mongol who overthrew the Song family to become the new ruler of Cathay. Unbeknownst to Haoyou, the Great Miao (or Miao Jie) was the grandson from the Song dynasty and whose mission it was to assassinate Khan. When Kublai Khan discovers the Great Miao's plan, he attempts to kill Miao but decides to exchange his life for Haoyou as a weapon for his army. However, when the Khan forced Haoyou to attack a rebellious town, a typhoon destroyed some of the town and the majority of the Khan's battle ships were decimated thus causing the Khan to leave Haoyou alone. At the end of the novel, Mipeng marries the Great Miao and they, along with Haoyou, Qing'an, Wawa, and Aunt Mo (Haoyou's great-aunt), leave their Great-Uncle Bo who had stolen money from their family to gamble. To help support his family, Haoyou made and sold kites to the people in Cathay. 

In regards to The Kite Rider, I would use this book in my classroom as a read aloud. Based on my reading of the book, I think the book is suspenseful enough to where I could read part of the book every day and the students would maintain interest. Also, I would ask the students to keep a journal every day after we read the book about what they would do if they were Haoyou.