The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir at three points in his life: as a boy, five years later as a young man, and fifteen years after that as a grown man asked to go back to Afghanistan to rescue the son of a childhood friend. This novel explores Amir’s search for redemption, the love between fathers and sons, and the way the past rarely stays in the past.
Major thematic elements: guilt and redemption, fathers and sons, the past, religion, friendship, racism and ethnicity.
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IB Literature and IB Language and Literature Connections
Place of publication: United States
Language: English
Era: 21st century
Genre: Fiction
Author: Male
Readers, writers and texts | Time and space | Intertextuality: Connecting texts
Identity | Culture | Creativity | Communication
Perspective | Transformation | Representation
Full text, basic summaries, and overviews
The Kite Runner | Penguin Random House | Excerpt
Under the image of the novel is a black and white button reading “Read an Excerpt.” A new window will open with the text.
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The Kite Runner | YouTube | Audiobooks
We found two playlists we' liked. One is made up of multiple readers, the other has just one reader beginning to end.
Version 1: Playlist by Micha | Version 2: Playlist and audio by DAF
The Kite Runner Study Guide | Spark Notes
This study guide includes summaries, character list and analysis, literary devices, Q&A, and more.
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The Kite Runner Study Guide | Course Hero
This study guide includes an overview, infographic, context, characters, plot and chapter summaries, quotes, symbols, and more.
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The Kite Runner | YouTube | Video Clips
The Kite Runner - Trailer | Paramount Movies | 1:57
The Kite Runner (2007) Movie Clips | movieclipsFILM | 10 videos, 1-3 minutes each
The Kite Runner Book Reviews | Various Sources
Review from CharlieB at The Guardian | July 2014
Review by Edward Hower at The New York Times | August 2003
The Kite Runner | Wikipedia
Wikipedia’s page on The Kite Runner breaks the novel into the following categories: composition and publication, plot summary, characters, themes, critical reception, and adaptations.
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About the author
Khaled Hosseini | Wikipedia
Wikipedia has a nice overview of Hosseini—early life and education, career, influences, personal life, bibliography, and more. For a biography you can print and give to students, see the Lesson Plans and Other Teaching Resources section of this page.
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Khaled Hosseini Videos | Khaledhosseini.com
This page is on Hosseini’s official website. It is a list of links to videos in which Hosseini appears, sorted by video topic.
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Khaled Hosseini Says Refugees are Essential to America | YouTube | Late Night with Seth Meyers | 5:33
In this video, Hosseini “talks about leaving his career as a doctor to become a full-time writer, his novel Sea Prayer, and how everyone can help refugees in their own communities.”
Watch here
The author of ‘The Kite Runner’ has a message for anyone worried about Afghanistan | CNN | Harmeet Kaur | August 21, 2021
This interview with Hosseini was conducted after Kabul fell to Taliban rule in 2021.
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‘There’s So Much More to Afghanistan’: Khaled Hosseini Reflects on His Birthplace | The New York Times | Elizabeth A Harris | August 18, 2021
”The author of “The Kit Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns” talks about the pain and frustration of watching the country from afar."
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An Afghan Story: Khaled Hosseini and ‘Kite Runner’ | NPR | Fresh Air | August 11, 2005 | 31-Minute Listen
’The Kite Runner’ | NPR | Weekend Edition Sunday | July 27, 2003 | 9-Minute Listen
Both of these interviews with Hosseini are great for casual—or intentional—listening.
Articles, essays, and videos about The Kite Runner
The Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan | PBS News Hour | October 10, 2006
This article summarize the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Sections include: “Afghan divisions,” “Soviet entry and the resistance,” and “The Afghan civil war.”
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Shocking images of drowned Syrian boy show tragic plight of refugees | The Guardian | Helena Smith | September 2, 2015
Important trigger warning: this article shows the photograph of Alan Kurdi, who died and whose body washed ashore on the Greek island of Kos. Hosseini has spoken about how this moment and image inspired his work on The Kite Runner.
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The Soviet War in Afghanistan, 1979-1989 | The Atlantic | Alan Taylor | August 4, 2014
This article looks back on the retreat of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. The article is accompanied by 41 photographs.
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Council on Foreign Relations | 1999-2021: The U.S. War in Afghanistan
This website is designed as a timeline with photographs, and may be useful in contextualizing contemporary Afghanistan for students. CrashCourse has a video that covers the same timeline: “Terrorism, War, and Bush 43: Crash Course US History #46.”
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Kite Runner | Ward’s World Wiki
This teacher website is full of hyperlinks to information that’s relevant to the study of the Kite Runner. Some links are out of date, but its organization and background topics are helpful in understanding the scope of information related to teaching The Kite Runner.
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Discovering The Kite Runner | Calum Kerr | Salempress.com
These sample pages from “Discovering The Kite Runner” includes pages on the historical context of the novel, and pages from the essay “‘Ask him where his shame is’: War and Sexual Violence in The Kite Runner” by Georgiana Banita.
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What is missing in The Kite Runner? Replacing motherhood with fatherhood through the absence of mothers and the presence of fathers | Patricia Said
This essay takes an interesting perspective on the novel and is probably too long to read in its entirety in class. But—excerpts may be interesting for students to study—both in terms of analysis and in how Said’s argument is structured.
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The Kite Runner Sample Essays | MrKmpsc.wordpress.com
This PDF has five sample essays, along with the prompts to which the essays respond. At the end are some notes from the instructor.
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Lesson plans and other teaching resources
The Kite Runner: A Background Resource for Readers | University of Texas Arlington
Click the link under the images that says View/Open. This PDF is a great two-pager for students, with characters, timeline, and more.
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Teaching ‘The Kite Runner’ With The New York Times | Amanda Christy Brown | January 8, 2015
This article has five ideas for how to approach teaching The Kite Runner: Abuses of Power, Redemption, Controversy on Both Page and Screen, Afghanistan Background, and “The Kite Runner” as an American Story.
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The Kite Runner Companion Curriculum | Amnesty International Human Rights Education Program
This PDF includes an introduction with contextual information and five lessons: Introduction to Afghanistan, Historical Overview of Afghanistan, Challenges Facing Human Rights in Afghanistan, The Impact of Fundamentalism, and Refugees and Resettlement.
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A Study Guide to the Riverhead Edition of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner
This 17-page PDF includes vocabulary activities, reading questions, quotations & references, themes, general reading response topics, and more.
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The American Place Theater | Literature to Life | Teacher’s Resource Guide for The Kite Runner
While designed for theatrical productions of the novel, this PDF has several activities that would work well in a literature classroom, including an activity on broken sentences and familiarizing students with the language in The Kite Runner, analysis of physical imagery, and more.
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Mr. Chilton’s English | The Kite Runner
This teacher website has two main sections we love: a Google Slides presentation at the top of his page which nicely sets up the unit, and further down the page a list of secondary sources. Not all links work, but the list provides a good overview of the context students will need as they begin study of this novel.
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The Kite Runner | Discussion and Essay Questions | Various Sources
From FCUSD.org | 19-page PDF with questions for each chapter in the novel.
From CloudFront.net | 5-page PDF with questions for each chapter in the novel.
From Kalamazoo Public Library | Reading Group Guide with questions—some with detailed answers.
From an AP English Literature and Composition course | 23 AP-level questions
From Riviera Schools | AP Literature and Composition Summer Reading Assignment
From elcamino.edu | Questions for the film adaptation of The Kite Runner
From Prestwick House | Overview of Marxist, Feminist, and Historicist approach to the novel with activities and questions
Shopping List
Texts and other resources you may find helpful.
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The Kite Runner
Paperback on Amazon.com
The Kite Runner Graphic Novel
Paperback on Amazon.com
The Kite Runner
DVD on Amazon.com
Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini
Hardcover on Amazon.com
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Paperback on Amazon.com
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini Paperback on Amazon.com
Afghanistan: A History from 1260 to the Present
Paperback on Amazon.com
Games without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan
Paperback on Amazon.comBack to Browse by Title | Browse by Author
