Can’t Remember A Book Title…?

I forgot the name of a book I read a ways back that I really enjoyed, and I want to get it again to re-read. It was a (medieval?) fantasy book with a dragon. The plot followed the story of a young boy who’s village and family were burned while he was out to a carnival in another town. After coming home and finding his village and family dead, the traveling carnival found him and took him with them. While in the carnival, the boy meets a young chinese girl the people call a “freak.” He befriends her, and they both escape the troupe and head to a small, chinese village where they meet an elder chinese lady who lets them rest and helps “unbreak” the chinese girl’s feet (a chinese tradition during that time was to break girl’s feet so they curled under and were “smaller,” which was considered “more beautiful”). After that, they build some rockets full of shrapnel and glass with the lady and head to the cliff where the dragon lives. They build a kite to attach the shrapnel rockets to so the dragon comes out, eats the kite, and pretty much blows up.
A few key points I remember along the plot are the boy making rabbit-skin boots near the beginning of the book, sleeping in a tree overlooking his burned village before being found by the traveling troupe, the boy always taking the chinese girl out the the river to bathe her feet even when other kids threw rocks at them, the boy observing gongs and other objects in the elder chinese lady’s home, and then he and the chinese girl camping out at the base of the dragon’s cliff for a long time while she sews together a kite with the rockets.
Sadly, I can’t remember a single character name or anything, but I really would like to read the book again. Thanks to anyone who may have read this book and knows the name of it.
I also remember the book being hard-cover and red with gold lettering. No pictures or anything on the cover or back. Not even a summary or praise for the author/book on the back.