A DREAM OF PILOTS
by Philip Handleman and illustrated by Craig Kodera
This collective biography profiling the achievements of 20 aviation pioneers is ably written and informative but not particularly engaging. Handleman, a pilot and author of numerous aviation-history books, bookends the sequence of short biographies with a young boy named “Philsie,” presumably the author as a child, who dreams of the historical figures profiled. This awkward framing device is both superfluous and downright hokey. Included among the four-page profiles are portraits of such familiar pioneers as the Wright Brothers, Bessie Coleman, Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh, as well as the lesser-known likes of World War I ace Billy Bishop, Flying Tigers commander Claire Chennault and test pilot Jackie Cochran. Kodera’s pencil-drawn portraits of the aviators vary in quality. Though each profile is concise and informative, the author makes no attempt to connect these aviators to one another. A notable oversight is the lack of a bibliography and suggestions for further reading. (Collective biography. 9-13)