Mayer branches out from his normal art style (which is mostly Euro-centric) to tackle a more Japanese style to accompany a Japanese story and setting. The artwork is not quite woodblock or Japanese inking, but it is none the less appealing and works well with Mayer's fictional legend. The motif of kites leading to social change actually seems to work well - enough to touch on more traditional Japanese legends of paper cranes and young girls crusading for social change. Bravo to Mayer for attempting to broaden his storytelling and artistic range. ( )

The princess is stuck inside the walls of the palace. She sees the poverty of the city outside the wall and orders her father to mke the city beautiful. She will stay on the kite in the sky untill the city is beautiful.

The emperor's daughter was never let out palace. One day she climbed a tree and saw what a scummy city her father was emperor of. She wanted the city to be as beautiful as the palace. So she got a kite maker to make a kite so big that it would lift her off the ground. When her father found her in the kite he asked the kitemaker to bring her down. The kitemaker said that if he did the daughter would cut the string and go to her death. She and the kitemaker disappeared and her father did everything in his power to make the city beautiful to bring his daughter back. But his efforts just made things worse and started wars. Years later a knight went looking for her, He found her in the woods living with the kitemaker. He told her that her father was sick and she needed to return. They returned, but her father was injured in war. She promised him that she would look over the city and try to make it a better place. This book has a good moral to it. But i think that it might be over a 3rd grader's head.
Website: http://purple.niagara.edu/cam/education/PDF/Kites_teacher_info.pdf