To Fly: The Story of the Wright Brothers – A Biography for Children (Ages 6-9) About the Sibling Inventors Who Built the First Airplane - Hardcover

Old, Wendie C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 061813347X ISBN 13: 9780618133475

Publisher: Clarion Books, 2002

Synopsis

Orville and Wilbur Wright were a fascinating pair. Not only did they invent, build, and fly the first airplane, they were also idiosyncratic individuals who had a unique relationship, sharing a home, a bank account, and a business throughout their lives. Their story is portrayed here in brief, accessible chapters, beginning with their childhood fascination with flight and love of problem solving, then detailing their early experiments and dangerous trial runs in North Carolina, and ending with their successful flights of 1903. This well-researched and personable biography is illustrated with elegant watercolors by flight enthusiast and noted artist Robert Andrew Parker. Timeline, endnotes, bibliography.

About this title

About the Authors

Wendie Old has been a storyteller and children's librarian for over 30 years. She is the author of many books for children, including To Fly: The Story of the Wright Brothers. She currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland and can be visited online at wendieold.com
 

Robert Andrew Parker is a fine artist and printmaker whose work often appears in publications such as The New Yorker. His numerous children’s books include To Fly: The Story of the Wright Brothers, Across the Blue Pacific: A World War II Story, and Grandfather Tang’s Story. He lives in West Cornwall, Connecticut.
 

Reviews

Grade 3-5-Some may question whether anyone needs another book on the Wright brothers. What is there new to say? Many biographies sufficiently document their trials, errors, and successes. And like Russell Freedman's The Wright Brothers (Holiday, 1991), they benefit from careful research; the brothers themselves took and left copious notes and photographs. The advantage of this presentation is its style and accessibility and the story it tells of two brothers (alike in goals, different in personalities) who had ideas and kept at them, whose parents nurtured those ideas, that creativity, and critical thinking. Old takes readers along with a chronological approach and stops after the first heavier-than-air manned flight. She relates how two bicycle repairmen solved the problems that leading scientists of the time had been unable to master. She carefully and almost effortlessly helps youngsters to understand the steps: wind resistance, drag, the need for rounded front edges on a propeller, more accurate air-pressure tables. But her story ultimately shows how the brothers worked together-almost in tandem-like the bicycle wheels in their shop, and how each man's strengths complemented the other's. Parker's characteristic watercolors do more than inform Old's straightforward story. They help to set an inventive tone-a kind of experimental fluidity that floats through the book-as if something might be going to happen. And for young readers, something indeed does.
Harriett Fargnoli, Great Neck Library, NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Behind the world's first manned flight were Orville and Wilbur Wright, two brothers with a dream and the determination to carry it out. In this rather dry biography, Old (The Wright Brothers: Inventors of the Airplane, for older readers) draws on a wealth of historical and personal facts (the brothers wore business suits during their beachside experiments; they lived at home and never married). She recounts the Wrights' childhood fascination with flying ("Many a night [Orville] lay in his bed in Dayton, Ohio, imagining what it would be like to swoop through the sky"), their experiments with kites and gliders, and the events of December 1903, when they flew four short flights off the dunes of Kitty Hawk, N.C. Clearly written passages explain how the brothers drew on their personal strengths Orville was the idea man, Wilbur the problem-solver to overcome such knotty scientific obstacles as air pressure (they built a wind tunnel in a washtub). The exhaustive details are well supported by Parker's (Cold Feet) sophisticated ink-and-wash illustrations, which resemble the fast, loose sketches of a scientific notebook and retain a suitably airy feel. His drawings of the brothers' Kitty Hawk attempts soar off the page and prove more inspiring than the academic tone of the writing. For young history and flying buffs, this book capably delivers the facts, then sends imaginations into flight on the wings of the illustrations. Ages 7-11.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 3-5. This large-format volume introduces Wilbur and Orville Wright and recounts their experiences with flight, from the toy helicopter and kites they played with as children to their famous flights on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Old writes in a clear, straightforward manner, using intriguing details to enliven the account without distorting the larger picture. Handsomely designed, the book has fairly large type, wide margins, and an attractive layout. Parker's ink-and-watercolor artwork generally appears as a full-page illustration facing a page of text. Occasionally, though, the pictures are smaller or larger, even stretching across a wide, double-page spread for a broad view of the Flyer on its first, unsuccessful flight and later, successful one. The innocence and optimism reflected in illustrations catch the tone of the story. Appendixes include a time line, a brief bibliography, and source notes for quotations. This well-designed book provides a fine introduction to the Wright brothers. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 061813347X
• ISBN 13: 9780618133475
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Parker Robert Andrew
• Number of pages: 48