Kite to Freedom
$6.50 – $8.50
The Story of a Kite-Flying Contest, the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge, and the Underground Railroad |
Can a kite change history? Katie and Homan’s did.
When engineers were faced with the challenge of bridging the vast Niagara Gorge, the solution was a kite-flying contest. After Katie and Homan’s kite crosses the gorge and wins the contest, construction begins on the first suspension bridge to connect the United States and Canada. The two friends are there as it becomes an important link on the Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape to freedom.
Even as her parents try to shield her from the ugly existence of slavery and the dangers of the Underground Railroad, Katie discovers that the scary truth is closer to home than she could have imagined.
Kite to Freedom is an action-packed, fictionalized account of actual events that occurred during the construction of the Niagara Falls International Suspension Bridge, which still connects the United States and Canada at Niagara Falls.
102 pages
Suitable for readers between 8 and 12 years old
Rebecca Gray –
A beautifully illustrated story of exploration and imagination. The story captured my grandson’s interest quickly. He loved watching the story unravel before his eyes. Wonderfully told through the universal language of artistry. Well done, Ms. Graf.
Diane Polec –
Love, love, love Treasure in the Trunk, a Wordless Picture Book. This book is wonderful! Can’t wait
to “read” it with my granddaughter when she visits. The illustrations are lovely and get the
imagination working right away! Highly recommended — Bravo!
Diane Polec –
Love, love, love Treasure in the Trunk, A Wordless Picture Book. The delightful story and wonderful
illustrations get the imagination going really quickly. I can’t wait to “read” it to my five year old
granddaughter, she’ll love it! Five Stars Plus!!
Sue Bango –
I was fortunate enough to have this picture book read to my first grade class by the author herself. They loved everything about this book and I loved how the beautiful illustrations sparked their imaginations. I highly recommend this book for all ages.
Debbie Rohrbach –
I’ve always loved wordless picture books, there were a couple of favorites when my children were
growing up. This would have been an extra special addition to our collection. Now I can share it with my grandchildren.
It is great to see a brother/sister relationship and their interactions on a rainy potentially boring day! I love the way the author brought out so many different scenes, cultures and activities once the children went outside, you could feel their excitement and awe.
I found my grandson wanted to hear my interpretations and then had his own, the boy was his favorite character and he noticed the dog in every scene!
Joe Murphy –
My 3 year old grandson and I enjoy creating new stories each time we read this book. It allows us both to use our imaginations I can also change the story to teach him different lessons. We both enjoy the interaction
Margaret Macleod –
The detailed illustrations in this book allows your imagation to explore and plot out your own adventerous story. It is benefical to use this book in a bilingual setting or in any creative way you desire. I have previously used this very book for educational purposes for children who are educated in Scottish Gaelic and it has helped the children enhance their language skills and interaction. I have no hestitation to recommend this book as it was throughly enjoyed by all age groups.
Melissa Maffei –
I gave this book three out of five stars on Goodreads. It is a nice story, and it has a nice progression. Like all wordless picture books, I do judge the artwork a bit more, since it is the artwork that is telling the story. I do like the simple style of the artwork. I also like how she framed each page. It gives you a more dimensional artwork when pieces of the story go beyond that frame. The only time that the framing changes in the book are towards the end when she uses both pages to share the same frame. It makes me want to have a hard copy of the book just so I can see how the artwork lays within the two pages.
The only thing that I would want to change in the story is one of the pictures. I do work with little kids, and how a person is drawn is a huge factor. On one of the pages, one of the characters, the girl, is drawn a bit creepily. I understand that it was just the angle of the picture, but my first response was how creepy that girl looked. Other than that, I have no complaints.
Right now I am in a kindergarten classroom as a classroom aid, and I would have loved to use this story in the classroom. Our unit this month is about the weather and how we express the weather in our daily lives as well as in art. This book illustrates very well everything that our teacher talked about in today’s lesson. Sadly, due to Covid-19, I am not able to share this book with any of my friends. I would have loved to not only see their responses but to share with your their words of wisdom about the story.
In all, I do think that this book would be fun to read with small children. I believe that everyone will enjoy the artwork, as well as the story being told. I also know from other wordless picture books, young ones will love being able to tell you the story that is happening within the pages.
Reviews in Chalk –
A pair of siblings are very excited about spending the day outside, but a thunderstorm ruins their plans. When the storm causes the lights to go out, they decide to explore the attic. There they find a treasure trunk filled with all the light their imaginations need.
This story is wordless, but its detailed pictures allow children to create a very complete story. The ending can also can be told and retold in different ways, more or less fantastic, exploring options. I really liked the story. I read a pdf copy, but I would like to have a hard copy to “touch” the pages.
Frieda Dee –
Children can use their own words to share the story they see in the pictures. Good for pre readers and non-English-language families or teachers in ESL classrooms.
Katie –
My two year old son has taken a strong interest in this book! We read it multiple times a day and I’m looking forward to the story getting more elaborate or him helping decide the story as he gets older. I just bought a copy as a gift since it’s so unique and I think has real longevity in a library.