Blue Sky Yellow Kite

In this unusual friendship story, originally published in Australia, a girl named Daisy is enchanted by a yellow fish kite she spies soaring in the sky. Following its line, she meets a boy, William, who shows Daisy how to fly it. She is so enamored of the experience that she flies the kite all the way home (“She does not look back once”), keeping it hidden away, partly out of guilt and partly because she isn’t ready to relinquish the kite. Bentley’s illustrations, which combine zigzagging pencil lines with airy splashes of watercolor, feel downright windswept—trees, grasses, the children’s hair, and the unfurling kite string seem to be in constant motion in nearly every scene. Holmes’s clipped text, by comparison, is more down to earth and doesn’t do much to evoke the joy the kite brings Daisy (“When she feels the kite catch the breeze, she releases it”). Although the author avoids spelling out Daisy’s conflicted emotions too blatantly, she never lets her speak (though William gets a few lines), which has the effect of keeping her heroine at arm’s length. Ages 4–8. (June)