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Shibumi and the Kitemaker

mercer mayer

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After seeing the disparity between the conditions of her father's palace and the city beyond its walls, the Emperor's daughter has the royal kitemaker build a huge kite to take her away from it all.

48 pages, Paperback

First published September 1,1999
Places
japan, 

This edition

Format
48 pages, Paperback
Published
January 1, 2003 by Marshall Cavendish Corp/Ccb
ISBN
9780761451457
ASIN
0761451455
Language
English

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About the author

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mercer mayer

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Mercer Mayer is an American children's author and illustrator. He has published over 300 books, using a wide range of illustrative styles. Mayer is best known for his Little Critter and Little Monster series of books.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 22 votes)
5 stars
9(41%)
4 stars
7(32%)
3 stars
6(27%)
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22 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
chrar
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 31,2025
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A wonderful tale of a young girl determined to change the outside to make it as beautiful as her garden in her home. She uses a kite to get her point to her father and the kitemaker makes her wish come true and her father tries to make the city like his daughter's garden as she wished in hopes of her returning home to him. A great story. A must read
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crystalpucca
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 31,2025
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I loved this picture book! Some wonderful illustrations from Mercer Mayer, and an even better story to go along with it. A magical story of a privileged girl wondering what the world outside of her walls was like. After she sees that everyone is suffering beyond the walls, she vows to never come down from a kite she is flying on. Some unfortunate events happen and she flies away. Her emperor father vows to fix the horror outside the walls, and get his daughter back. A young samurai finds his daughter and returns her to see the major difference in life in and outside the walls.
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Rikke01
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 31,2025
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At first, my kids and I thought that this book was based on a real folktale, but it came from Mercer Mayer's imagination and fascination with Japanese culture. He did an impressive job. The story is quite epic for a picture book!
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todoke333
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 31,2025
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1. Shibumi was locked inside a palace for most of her life before she climbed a tree and discovered a poor city. Enlisting the help of a kitemaker, she flies into the air and vows to not return until the city is beautiful. Her father spends years fixing the city and Shibumi eventually returns home.
2. This is a beautiful story which reminds me a lot of Aladdin. I enjoyed Shibumi's determination and her fight to make the city beautiful. I also really liked the ending which made a connection to today's world and the continued beauty of the city and the palace.
3. I would pair this book with "Baseball Saved Us" by Ken Mochizuki because of the similar cultural influences in both books.
4. "Shibumi had always thought that the city beyond her walled garden must be the most beautiful place on earth, but in reality only the palace and the little walled garden were beautiful."
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SweetCatalina
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 31,2025
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Mercer Mayer was born in Arkansas and moved to Honolulu when he was thirteen. He went from a racially segregated South to a melting pot South Pacific island where he was one of only three white children in his homeroom class. Mayer, although not Japanese, does an excellent job of weaving into this picture book the linguistic rhythm of Japanese when translated into English. There is honor in his depiction of the Japanese. Mayer also made up the entire legend of Shibumi, which gets at the issue of western Ethnocentrism. I am hard-pressed to find any hint of it in the narrative or its illustrations.
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adriculous
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 31,2025
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I loved this beautiful picture book about how one person can change the world for everyone. It’s a must read.

The illustrations are fabulous. They make you feel like you want to go flying on the end of a kite.

It gets my Super Huggable Book Award.
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