THREE ACROSS

Finkelstein, author of numerous works of 20th-century history for children and adults, transports readers to a time when new technologies—advanced through war research—promised to change people’s horizons around the world. World War I made air travel a reality, but planes couldn’t yet sustain long-distance flights that required heavy fuel loads, nor transport passengers. Though the first transatlantic flight occurred in 1919, the more historically celebrated Orteig Prize for a nonstop flight from New York to Paris came to a head in 1927 with three contending teams. Finkelstein describes the financial, mechanical and meteorological complications involved in Lindbergh’s triumph and Levine and Chamberlain’s and Byrd’s flights, as well as the celebrations and debacles that ensued. Though oddly paced (each flight is related separately, in overlapping time sequences), the well-documented text, illustrated with generously sized archival photographs, roots readers firmly in the context of the race, and allows them to develop some of their own conclusions. (notes, bibliography, source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)