Kirkus Reviews QR Code
A KITE FOR BENNIE by Genevieve Gray

A KITE FOR BENNIE

By

Pub Date: May 15th, 1972
Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Mama's welfare check isn't big enough to buy a kite for Bennie, so he decides to make one. The whole story is about his dream which becomes a plan and then a kite that flies at last when Bennie, who's forgotten to make a tail for it, ties his new sneakers to the end for ballast. Poverty and threats from neighborhood toughs make a convincingly grim background for Bennie's flying hopes, and the purplish-black pictures also mix reality (faces and figures) with dreamlike collages of torn and crinkled planes. But as there are no confrontations or sharp reversals or any real surprises it's doubtful that older children will be as interested in the project as Bennie is, and (despite the picture book format) the numerous double pages of straight text as well as the subdued, introspective tone of the illustrations make this an unlikely readaloud choice.