Product Description

Travelling to the West Bank to witness how life is for Palestinians and Jews living in the shadow of a dividing wall, journalist Max strikes up a friendship with an enigmatic Palestinian boy, Said. Together the two sit under an ancient olive tree while Said makes another of his kites. As Max is welcomed as a guest, he learns of the terrible events in the familyÂ’s past and begins to understand why Said no longer speaks. Told from both MaxÂ’s and SaidÂ’s points of view, Morpurgo has created a beautiful tale of tragedy and hope with an ending that rings with joy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3345 in Books
• Published on: 2009-11-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 80 pages

From the Inside Flap
A television reporterÂ’s extraordinary experience in the West Bank reveals how childrenÂ’s hopes and dreams for peace and unity can fly higher than any wall built to divide communities and religions. Travelling to the West Bank to witness how life is for Palestinians and Jews living in the shadow of a dividing wall, journalist Max strikes up a friendship with an enigmatic Palestinian boy, Said. Together the two sit under an ancient olive tree while Said makes another of his kites. As Max is welcomed as a guest, he learns of the terrible events in the familyÂ’s past and begins to understand why Said no longer speaks. Told from both MaxÂ’s and SaidÂ’s points of view, Morpurgo has created a beautiful tale of tragedy and hope with an ending that rings with joy.

About the Author
Michael Morpurgo, the 2003–2005 Children's Laureate, is widely recognized as a master storyteller, and has won numerous awards for his work, including the Smarties Book Prize, the Writer's Guild Award and the Children's Book Award (for The Wreck of the Zanzibar). Michael lives in Devon.

Customer Reviews

Another Poignant Tale from Michael Morpurgo
Another wonderfully thought-provoking story from one of my favourite children's authors. The story is set in the West Bank, and is about a local village boy and a travelling English journalist. Said, the local boy, devotes his time to looking after the sheep and tending the crops, but in any spare moment he makes kites. On each kite he writes a simple word, in the hopes of spreading his dream.

Max, the journalist, has travelled to the West Bank in the hopes of creating a film about the wall dividing the Palestinians and the Jews. He aims to make something to show the similarities between both sides, rather than a piece of film that portrays one side as being in the right.

Said and Max, find hope amongst the tragedies of life in an area which has seen many atrocities, leaving the reader with a sense of uplifting hope for the future, and a feeling that maybe Said's dream could be realised one day in the real world too.

As always, however, I must add a cautionary warning to parents of very sensitive children - Michael Morpurgo tackles issues head-on, and does not gloss over the bad bits. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons behind his success, his ability to understand that children have a right, and a desire, to know how things really are in the world in which they live. Michael Morpurgo has woven another beautifully poignant tale, which is very much a book that can be enjoyed by children and adults alike. The illustrations are striking, and definitely add to the beauty of the story. I would recommend this for children of around 9 and upwards.

Touchingly beautiful
After a slightly shaky start, this book became a touchingly beautiful appeal for peace. I shed a tear at the end - always a sign that a book has moved me.

The book tells of Max, a journalist, who travels to Palestine to present a balanced view of the personal problems experienced by people living on both sides of the wall. By chance he meets up with Said, a young kite maker and shepherd. He is welcomed into Said's home and learns the family's sad story.
When Said flies his kites Max discovers another side to the tragedy.

The beginning of the book was a litle confusing and might pose problems for younger readers and I wasn't impressed with the illustrations, but overall I was so moved by the story that I felt it earned the full 5*.

A great author.

Nice story, but not especially well told
Michael Morpugo has created a nice story about two kite flying boys in Palestine. The story alternates between extracts from the diary of Max, the avuncular British TV reporter, and the inner voice of Said, younger of the two boys.

The idea of the story is excellent, but reading it as an adult I didn't find it particularly well executed, despite Morpugo's respected status as a former Children's laureate. The language has been made deliberately simple for children (at least I hope it has), and I found both voices unconvincing... the story deals with emotional material, but there's a flatness to the writing. It lacks sparkle, the emotional highs and lows that the story itself calls for. Nevertheless, it is a nice tale, well illustrated by Laura Carlin. I can imagine it being used in schools, but I feel it's unlikely to be a book that children will be inspired by, or want to return to again and again.