The Kite Lady

T H E K I T E L A D Y
M a r g a r e t G r e g e r 1 9 2 3 - 2 0 0 9

Kites provide inexpensive, exciting leads into many areas; arts, crafts, engineering, math and even history, since the development of kites is traced in both East and West. They are also simply fun to build and fly, an activity to be shared by all ages. They are for poets, inventors and all of us who like to hold our work in our hands and watch it take off into the sky, responding to the wind against the surfaces of the kite.

All kite makers build on what has gone before and all of us are indebted to unknown kite designers who, long ago and far away built and flew kites. Margaret's books would not have been possible without the pupils and the teachers in the various schools where, over a period of 15 years, she learned to be the Kite Lady.

Her criteria for class room kites was as follows:
One: They must be winners, guaranteed to fly. Classroom kites should be easy to make and easy to fly.
Two: They must use easily obtainable, inexpensive materials.
Three: They must be completed in about an hour so the kite can be finished and flown the day it is begun."

Margaret Greger, the author, was named American Kite Magazine's 1996 Kite Person of the Year. She taught kitemaking for over forty years and taught others to both enjoy and teach kitemaking. Her instructions for fabric kites range from the simple Square Kite to the complex Flow Form.