The Kite Rider: A Boy's Dangerous Circus Adventure in Thirteenth-Century China Under Kublai Khan($12.79Value)

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Geraldine McCaughrean—two-time Carnegie Medalist for Where the World Ends and Pack of Lies —delivers a dazzling story of adventure, betrayal, family, and sacrifice set in the dramatic, dangerous world of thirteenth-century China. “A genuine page-turner,” raved ALA Booklist in a starred review! The Great Miao, master of the Jade Circus, offers twelve-year-old Haoyou the amazing chance to change his life—to escape from his family’s poverty and the pain of his father’s recent death—by becoming a kite rider! Strapped onto a beautiful scarlet-and-gold kite, Haoyou is sent into the sky to soar perilously among the clouds and entertain awestruck crowds below. Traveling the Empire with the circus, Haoyou earns freedom, money, and unexpected fame as he skillfully performs for local villagers who believe he can bring back messages from lost loved ones whose spirits haunt the sky. The Great Miao even plans for the boy to perform before the Mongol conqueror Kublai Khan himself! But what if the Miao isn’t all that he seems? And can Haoyou really leave behind all the duties that bind him to the ground—his family and especially his widowed mother—for good? “A genuine page-turner. Not only a solid adventure story but also a window to a fascinating time and place.” - ALA Booklist (starred review) “There’s no livelier or more fluent storyteller than McCaughrean. Skillful plotting, hair-raising suspense, and vivid details all help bring this adventure to splendid life.” - Horn Book Magazine “With her exuberant, nonstop plotting and supremely colorful setting, McCaughrean grabs hold of readers’ imaginations and doesn’t let go.” - Publishers Weekly Up and up the wind drew him. Haoyou looked about him and saw the whole world beneath him. And it was his. The Great Miao, master of the Jade Circus, offers Haoyou the amazing chance to escape his family's poverty -- by becoming a kite rider. Strapped onto a beautiful scarlet-and-gold kite, Haoyou is sent into the sky, earning money, freedom, and unexpected fame. Miao even plans for Haoyou to perform before Kublai Khan himself. From Carnegie Medalist Geraldine McCaughrean comes a dazzling story of adventure, betrayal, family, and sacrifice set in the dramatic world of thirteenth-century China. Geraldine McCaughrean is the Printz Award-winning author of The White Darkness . She has been honored with England's most prestigious children's book award, the Carnegie Medal, and is the only three-time winner ever of the Whitbread Children's Book Award. She also wrote Peter Pan in Scarlet , the first official sequel to the treasured masterpiece Peter Pan , and the critically acclaimed The Death-Defying Pepper Roux . Geraldine lives in Berkshire, England, with her husband and actress daughter. Excerpt Chapter One Testing the Winds Gou Haoyou knew that his father's spirit lived among the clouds. For he had seen him go up there with a soul and come down again without one. It happened down at the harbor, the day the Chabi put to sea. When she set sail, Haoyou's father, Gou Pei, would be among her crew and gone for months on end. So Haoyou went with him, down to the docks, to make the most of him on this, their last day together. ?When I get home this time,? said Pei, ?we must see about you becoming an apprenticed seaman.? Haoyou's heart quickened with fear and pride at the thought of stepping out of childhood and into his father's saltwater world. For the first time ever, Pei took him aboard'showed him where the anchor was lodged, where the sailors slept, how the ship was steered, where the cargo would be stowed. And the biggest excitement of all was still to come: Soon, the Chabi's captain would be ?testing the wind,? checking the omens for a prosperous voyage. Farther along the harbor wall, a great commotion started up, as a ship, newly arrived from the south, disembarked its passengers: a traveling circus. For the first time in his life, Haoyou saw elephants ponderously picking their way across the gangplank, while tumblers somersaulted off the ship's rail and onto the dockside. There were acrobats in jade-green, close-fitting costumes, twirling banners of green and red, and jugglers and stilt walkers, and a man laden from head to foot with noisy birdcages. There were horses, too, ridden ashore across the sagging gangplank as recklessly as if it were a broad, stone bridge by Tartar horsemen in sky-blue shirts. ?Ragamuffin beggars,? grunted Haoyou's father - which made Haoyou laugh, since the gorgeous circus people, finding his father's tattered rice-straw jacket, would probably have fed it to one of their elephants. The Gou family was not exactly the cream of elegant Dagu society. Still, he sensed that he should not ask to see the circus perform: Circus people were obviously not respectable - especially when they included Tartars. The ship on which his father, Pei, was about to set sail had a Tartar name now. Last season she had had a perfectly good Chinese name, but in