Cousins Hiroshi and Skye are thrown together against their will after Hiroshi’s family moves from Japan to the Virginia community where Skye and her family live. Hiroshi is struggling with English; Skye is struggling to master a Japanese class her parents insist she take—she must place into the Advanced Class or miss playing on a high-level soccer team in the summer. So working out an arrangement where they help one another seems logical. But there is more than a divide of language and culture between them, there is jealousy: Hiroshi resents having to share Grandfather, who moved with them from Japan, with Skye. For her part, Skye resents Hiroshi not only because she has to help him navigate fifth grade, but because she almost never gets time alone with the grandfather she has just met. But their grandfather’s failing health, and his wish that the two work together to compete in the annual kite-flying competition in Washington, D.C., forces them into a partnership that provides them with both satisfaction and solace in author Natalie Dias Lorenzi’s satisfying, emotionally authentic novel that alternates between Skye’s and Hiroshi’s voices. (Ages 9–12)

American-born Skye is a good student and a star soccer player who never really gives any thought to the fact that her father is Japanese. Her cousin, Hiroshi, lives in Japan, and never really gives a thought to his uncle's family living in the United States. Skye and Hiroshi's lives are thrown together when Hiroshi's family, with his grandfather (who is also his best friend), suddenly moves to the U.S. Now Skye doesn't know who she is anymore: at school she's suddenly too Japanese, but at home she's not Japanese enough. Hiroshi has a hard time adjusting to life in a new culture, and resents Skye's intrusions on his time with Grandfather. Through all of this is woven Hiroshi's expertise, and Skye's growing interest in, kite making and competitive rokkaku kite flying.