Blue sky, yellow kite by Janet A. Holmes

Ill. by Jonathan Bentley. Little Hare Books, 2016. ISBN 9781760124229
High above a bright yellow kite soars in the bright blue sky and as it dips and dives, flits and flies with its tail feathers flying it catches the eye of Daisy. Intrigued she follows its string to see who is flying such a magnificent thing. Up the hill, down the hill and across the field she finds William in a big house on the edge of town. As she watches longingly through the fence, he invites her in and teaches her how to fly it. But then she does the unthinkable - she runs away with the kite all the way back to her house. Knowing she has done the wrong thing she hides it and doesn't fly it - but where is the joy in a kite sitting on top of a wardrobe instead of soaring through the sky? At last she cannot stand it and she just has to fly the kite - but William sees her and just walks away. Again the kite is placed on the top of the wardrobe but the next day, Daisy takes it down again . . .
Sometimes little people are just so tempted by someone else's things that they just have to take them, even though, like Daisy, they know it is wrong to do so. And with Christmas coming on and lots of children having lots of things to show off, there are going to be a lot of children fighting temptation. Thus this is a timely story about wanting, needing, guilt and honesty which has a heart-warming ending that lends itself to all sorts of discussions in the home and in the classroom.
The visual contrast, both physically and metaphorically, of the bright yellow kite against the deep blue sky, juxtaposes Daisy and William's positions and Jonathan Bentley's illustrations add much to the text with their movement and colour. This is a charming story about friendship and forgiveness and the dilemma of whether a thing is more important than a friend.
Barbara Braxton