Teaching Sequence: The Kite Rider

The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean

Publishing details

Geraldine McCaughrean The Kite Rider
Oxford University Press, 2001
ISBN: 0192718606

Curriculum content

The Kite Rider would be appropriate for use in Upper KS2 or KS3. It would fit the ranges: Novels by significant children's writers (Y5); Fiction by long established authors and comparison of work by significant children's authors (Y6), and Recent and contemporary works (KS3), particularly in the strands: ‘Understanding the author's craft' and ‘Reading for meaning'.

Synopsis

Set in 13th-century China, this story centres around Haoyou, a 12-year-old boy, who at the beginning of the story watches his father die aboard a kite sent up to test the winds before a voyage. Di Chou, the first mate of the boat, has engineered this in order to get Haoyou's mother for himself.

Haoyou acts to prevent this, but in doing so has to ride the kite himself. This attracts the attention of 'The great Miao', master of the Jade circus, who offers Haoyou an escape as a kite rider for the circus.

Haoyou and Mipeng (a distant relative) journey with the circus, discovering the world outside Dagu, living and working with people whom Haoyou has been brought up to despise. Haoyou finds fame but the world is more complicated than he realises and his learned values of obedience and duty to his family are not enough to guide him through his adventures.

When he discovers that Miao's desire to perform for the Kublai Kahn is motivated by a filial promise of revenge, he wants to prevent this. However, he betrays Miao and in doing so is forced to make his own lonely journey as kite rider with the Mogul army.

Finally, he returns home to Dagu, shows resourcefulness and courage in rescuing his mother and begins to understand where his duties lie.

Themes and issues

• Obedience - particularly filial obedience
• Sacrifice
• Betrayal
• Courage

Characters

• Great Uncle Bo, head of the family
• Great Aunt Mo, his wife
• Pei, a sailor, nephew of Bo Dong
• Qing'an, Pei's wife
• Haoyou, Pei's son, aged 12
• Wawa, his little sister
• Mipeng, a distant relation, a young widow and a medium
• Di Cho, first mate aboard Pei's ship
• Miao Jie, or "The Great Miao", circus master of the Jade Circus
• Bukhur, a Mongol bird-catcher
• Khutulun, his daughter
• Kublai Khan, Mongol conqueror of 13th-century Cathay (China)
• The Song Dynasty, Chinese rules of Cathay before Kublai Khan's invasion.

The characters are set out as a cast list in the front of the book in this order; they are ordered not by main character but by family status.

Setting

13th-century China, from Dagu, a coastal town, to the rivers and paddy fields further north, to Dadu, the imperial city of Kublai Khan.

Structure

Opening We find out about Gou Pei's death, about Haoyou's belief that his father's spirit now lives up in the clouds. The flight, the responses of Haoyou, the observations of a foreigner in the crowd (possibly Marco Polo, whose observations and writings form the historical starting point for the story), and the narrative voice help us to enter the world of 13th-century China.

Inciting Moment It is clear from the beginning that Haoyou is still a child, with a child's view of the world. He recognises the dissonances in his world but cannot understand them. He is quite different from his little sister, however: a boy on the brink of manhood with a sense of responsibility towards his family.

A chain of linked events (the opening kite ride, his father's death, his bid to provide for his mother and sister as a kitemaker, his own kite ride in order to prevent Di Chou's marriage to his mother) lead to Haoyou being offered a job with the Jade Circus and this begins his adventures beyond Dagu and into a more adult world.

Development Haoyou learns more about the world during his journeys with the circus. He finds that Mipeng has skills he did not know about and he learns that he has the courage to fly, even to risk his own safety to save Bukhur's little daughter.

He enjoys living among people who think he is "brave and reckless and clever, lucky, unique and heroic", but his relationships with Mipeng and Miao show how much he still has to learn.

He does not realise how much both of them protect him from the harsher realities of life and he fails to understand them.

The appearance of Uncle Bo and Aunt Mo show how reliant he still is on the rules of obedience and family duty that he has been brought up with. He is unable to escape the idea that his father is still in the sky with him, advising him.

Climax Haoyou discovers that Miao is driven by a promise to his father to assassinate Kublai Khan. This forces him to begin to question the idea of filial obedience. He flies for Khan, landing on the Khan's altar, an offence punishable by death.

Miao and Haoyou's friends from the circus save his life, but, escaping with Uncle Bo, Haoyou breaks his promise to Miao and tells Bo that Miao is a member of the Song Dynasty. Bo returns, determined to blackmail Miao and take control of the circus, but Miao would rather sacrifice himself to Khan.

He reveals his true self and purpose and is condemned to death. Only the loyalty of Mipeng, Haoyou and the other circus performers, all of whom are prepared to die with the circus master, prevents this. Hayou is taken off to serve in Khan's army.

Denouement On his own now, among people who speak a different language, without the guidance of Mipeng and Miao, Haoyou realises that obedience is not enough. He is forced to fly over Yangcun to drop bombs to avenge insults to Khan's army.

Against these simple people who have made a business of spirit messages since the circus's last visit, Haoyou finally realises the truth - that the flash of light he sees in the clouds is not his father's spirit - but his eye injury. Alone, he disobeys, dropping the bombs beyond the temple at Yangcun. Buffeted by the typhoon, he realises that although his father is dead, he is still real to him.

Ending Blind now in one eye, Haoyou journeys alone to Dagu, finding when he gets there that his mother has been betrayed by Bo. He finds her at the liquor house and rescues her and Wawa, hiding them on Di Chou's boat while he waits for Bo's return and revenge. When it is Di Chou who returns first, Haoyou is forced to risk all in the gambling house.

Mipeng is appalled. But this is all part of a plan to have Di Chou arrested for theft and deceit. When Bo returns we are shocked to see Mipeng solicit his blessing for her marriage to Miao. He tries to strangle Mipeng and reiterates his belief that "the first duty of young people is to obey their elders". They reject this, abandoning Bo to his gambling, and leave with the circus, Hayou, Qu'ing, Wawa, Mipeng and Mo.

Teaching suggestions

Narration and point of view

This book is excellent for exploring narrative perspective. It is a third-person narrative but privileges Haoyou's point of view. Ask children to consider his status as a 12-year- old and ask is he a reliable narrator? Gather evidence to support views.

To explore the narration in the book, pupils could re-write the opening chapter from the viewpoints of a) Haoyou and b) the foreigner. By doing this it would be possible to analyse what the third person narration adds to the story.

The use of third person enables McCaughrean to include: the impressionistic, imaginative and emotional response of Haoyou, the factual and cautionary response of the foreigner, as well as the all seeing eye of the third-person narrator.

Chapter three also provides a further opportunity to analyse the narrative viewpoint. Children could identify the different viewpoints of Di Chou, and Haoyou, the author's view of Bo and other instances where the third-person narration provides information which is unavailable to the characters.

They could consider the purpose of the italics in describing Di Chou's actions. Guide children to notice how the dialogue offers another narrative perspective. Mipeng's character reminds the reader that Haoyou is inexperienced, sometimes "twelve kinds of a fool."

Her dialogue and reticence, provide glimpses beyond Haoyou's face-value interpretation of the world. Sometimes she does not know the truth or provide answers, but acknowledges the complexities and challenges readers to fill the gap.

Children could highlight passages according to the narrative viewpoint and notice how, within this third person narration, Geraldine McCaughrean gives us access to many viewpoints. Ask children to consider at different points in the narrative whether they feel part of the story or like an observer of unfolding events.

Character

Identify the different ways in which McCaughrean establishes and develops character. She offers some information but leaves gaps for the reader to fill. This is particularly true of Mipeng and Miao. Read about Mipeng in chapters two and three. Begin to make lists of what they know about these characters and how they know it. Once aware of the demands the author makes on the reader, children should be more able to interpret the character of Miao.

Explore the characters through hot-seating. How do we learn about each of them? How much depends on inferential reading? They could compare this with the treatment of Uncle Bo and Di Chou who are much less complex and ambiguous and explore the reasons for the writer developing them in different ways.

Geraldine McCaughrean has said in interviews that she tends to cast her adult characters using actors so that she knows what they look and sound like in different emotional situations. Ask children to cast actors in the roles of the characters in the book. Find pictures or video clips and explain and justify their choices, matched to evidence in the text.

Pick key scenes (e.g. Haoyou and Mipeng leaving Dagu with the circus; Bo returning to the Jade Circus ready to blackmail Miao; Miao talking to Mipeng and Haoyou about his father; Haoyou landing having found Bukhur's daughter) and create tableaux. Thought-track each of the characters. Explore more deeply through drama and role play, the feelings and motivations of each of the characters.

The theme of obedience

"In all his life no one had taught him anything but blind obedience: to his parents to his elders, to his fate" (p.113).

This theme and its development could be tracked through the book using a reading journal or simply on a narrative timeline to emphasise how events develop the theme. In doing this, children would need to consider the difference between the views of the narrator and those expressed by others in the text. This could be done by hot-seating characters.

To make links between their own understanding and experience and that of the story, children could explore the theme of obedience for themselves, exploring through discussions and presentations what it means to them and perhaps how this differed for their parents and grandparents, possibly how it still differs across cultures.

To engage fully in the complexities of the story, it is important that children make this link between culture and values and can appreciate the reasons why Haoyou places so much importance on obedience and why breaking away from this is such a struggle for Miao.

Writing style

Children could explore Geraldine McCaughrean's writing style and use of language. She uses metaphor and simile not only to create visual images but also to convey emotion. Identify the emotional significance of these examples:

Haoyou's point of view of his father as"a money spider on the end of a silken thread."

Hayou's thoughts about himself "like a rabbit overshadowed by a hawk", "like a boat running for harbour in a storm."

Mipeng's consolation reaching "inside his ear like the corner of his mother's apron on bath night."

Ask children to find further metaphors and similes and examine McCaughrean's choice of language and the meanings she is able to convey because of those choices. Ask children to choose their favourite examples of figurative language, share them with the class, explain meanings and give reasons for choice. They might vote for and display their top ten.

Visualisation

This could be developed into a fantastic project for textile or collage work with cross-curricular links to Art and Design Technology. It also lends itself to movement work in PE.

Choose one of the settings: Dagu, view from the kite, the docks, the paddy fields, the Khan's pavilion, and paint a picture of it.

How similar are children's interpretations of the text? How much information was provided by the text and how much was readerly imagination? Compare with historical information about Kublai Khan and 13th-century China.

Re-read the passages that describe kite flying. From the text, collect verbs and other key words or phrases which describe movement. Use contrasting verbs to develop dance movements that imitate kite flying.

Different parts of the text could be used as inspiration to develop dances to show the thrill and joy, the fear and the pain of kite flying, the contrasting feelings of power and helplessness.

Alternatively, use the same passages to develop musical compositions in which repeated patterns and musical phrases conjure up the different aspects of flying.

Pace of writing

Choose one of the high points of the narrative: Gou Pei's kite flight, Chapter 16 (P5-8), or Chapter 10 (The Paddy), and identify the ways in which McCaughrean controls the pace of the story. Identify and map out the way in which she controls the pace through paragraphing: alternating descriptions of setting, dialogue, action, questions and, within that, how she varies sentence lengths to effect.

Notice how she varies the dialogue (e.g. using untagged speech during the sharing of ideas at the launching of the kite in chapter 10, to create a sense of urgency and a focus on the events rather than the individual speaker). McCaughrean skilfully moves the reader from a long overview, to the centre of the action, to an internal view.

Storyboarding one of these key scenes would be an excellent way of realising the skill with which McCaughrean controls the pace.

Encourage children to use these techniques in their own writing. Invite them to use their experiences of a personal physical challenge - perhaps a sporting competition. Alternatively, use a video clip of a sporting event and develop this into a piece of writing which experiments with the techniques that McCaughrean uses.

Ask children to analyse the descriptive passages in the chapter and notice how she uses language to create and reflect mood and presage events. Draw attention to the effect of different words:

Verbs

"The boats clicked and creaked in the heat. The river moiled and seethed, a dark mustard yellow" (p. 90).

... adjectives and figurative language:

"The paddy lay like a chessboard, the village a cluster of captured pawns, the monastery the box in which the pieces were kept. Little boats descended the river with barely a wake, whereas those going upstream cut white chevron-shaped scars in its surface.

Water buffalo were all that disturbed the silver sheen of the flooded fields, though here and there a broken mud wall allowed water to trickle from one level to a lower one, making crescent ripples. The very few wading peasants out among their crops were nothing more than discs of yellow in their conical hats" (p. 96).

…. and the use of emotive language and repeated sentence structures:

"Capes and isthmuses of cloud supported a jet black kingdom of cloud taller than any mountain range. Caverns yawned alongside hanging gardens and palaces a thousand storeys high. Sudden portcullises opened and released streamers of solid gold, as if the gods themselves were imprisoned inside."

Discuss and encourage children to experiment with these models in their own writing, perhaps using photographs of places or paintings by different artists. Alternatively, take digital photos to convey different moods of a scene at different times of the day and use these as basis for writing.

The symbolism of the kite

Children could research the importance of kite making and flying in Chinese culture.

They could make their own design for a kite and decorate it with appropriate messages.

They could consider the importance of the kite as a motif through the book. As well as the importance of the kite in Haoyou's life, McCaughrean uses it as an image at the climax when Miao meets Khan: "The Great Miao was like a kite string taut to breaking". How much is the kite linked to the theme of obedience? (In chapter 5, when Haoyou first flies as a kite rider to prevent Di Chou marrying his mother, he says "it was insolent. It was disobedient. It was heinous. Only when his feet touched ground would the guilt close in").

What does the kite enable Haoyou to find out about himself? What part does a kite play in each important event in Haoyou's life? A simple kite shape could be made and the children's ideas written on paper and attached to its tail.

Story structure

Trace the development of characters and ideas through the story and predict what the ending might be. When the book is finished identify the home-away-home structure of the story.

Compare The Kite Rider with other texts with the same structure. How have things changed for Haoyou? How has he changed? How did the writer develop ideas and characters to prepare the reader for the ending?

Reflection and further reading

Ask children to consider why some people have suggested that McCaughrean's books are ‘difficult reads'. Ask children to reflect on what they have learned as a reader from reading The Kite Rider. How might they approach another McCaughrean book? What expectations would they have? What rewards are there for this kind of read? How might they read it differently from other texts?

Display a selection of McCaughrean's books for children to select for independent reading. Access reviews of her books using the internet and other resources such as Books for Keeps and Carousel to encourage children to extend their independent reading repertoire.