RUTH LAW THRILLS A NATION

In 1916, ``Ruth Law tried to fly from Chicago to New York City in one day. It had never been done before.'' She almost made it, in a tiny open plane carrying 53 gallons of gas—so much that its lights had to come off to save weight. Bundled against the frigid weather, Law took off at dawn and had made a record with a 590-mile flight by the time she landed to refuel. A second hop got her past Binghamton, but she had to stop when it got dark; the next day she landed in N.Y.C., hailed as a heroine. In his first children's book, Brown records these events in an easy, concise style spiced with amusing details—Law took along a skirt but didn't wear it in the air: ``good sense defeated fashion.'' His sketchy pen and watercolor illustrations lighten the proceedings with caricatures of spectators while nicely conveying the period, the vast sky, and Law's remarkably frail-looking craft. A likable story, well worth telling. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 4-9)