David Pelham, Drachen, 1976, 224 pages, ISBN 3-7701-0946-5 (german translation of "The Penguin Book of Kites", ISBN 0-14-004117-6)

This was my first kite book. Unfortunately, it's not a very good book for a novice: The plans lack detail and have almost no descriptive text. Of course it's a classic and it's quite good, if you want an overview of the history of kites and basic kite designs up to the 1970s.
By now it's a bit outdated, though. Also the binding is lousy - pages start falling out almost immediately (the Dumont edition - I don't know about Penguin).