LEE LAN FLIES THE DRAGON KITE

by Ralph Herrmanns ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 27, 1963

Lee Lan sets out with her older brother Hing to earn enough money to pay her tuition at school. She is the daughter of a poor fisherman who can only afford to send his son to school. The family lives on board a junk that moors at Hong Kong and the colorful quayside shops offer the opportunity for pickup work. In Hao Loo's, where masks, dragons and kites are made, the children work on the annual dragon kite ordered by the fishermen as an offering to the fishing god. By flying the kite for Hao Loo, Lee Lan gets enough money for school at last. The pictures are colored photographs that have National Geographic clarity. They come at every page -- in some cases more than one to a page. Family life aboard a Chinese junk is followed carefully, leaving the impression behind that as soon as you can walk, you can work. -- all day. It's a pleasant little story about something too often taken for granted and the photographs take some of the curse off the way the story hops about. This is a translation from the Swedish and the title is misleading -- very little about kites.

Pub Date: March 27, 1963

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt, Brace & World

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1963

Categories: CHILDREN'S