Who were those daring young men in the first flying machines? Krensky (Lionel in the Summer ,1998, etc.) offers a well-researched overview of both the lives of the Wright brothers and the early development of flight worldwide, in this addition to the Ready-to-Read series, written at the third-grade reading level. He describes the early kites and gliders built by Wilbur and Orville Wright, shows the young men at work in their bicycle shop in Dayton, and details their dangerous experiments at Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills on the coast of North Carolina. Direct quotations attributed to the Wrights are all from their letters of the period, showing the author’s careful research using primary sources. Simplified explanations of a few basic aerodynamic concepts are woven into the text, and other pioneers of early flight are mentioned, including Sir George Cayley, Otto Lilienthal, and Samuel Langley, as well as Daedalus and Icarus from Greek mythology. Two minor caveats are a glaring typo (to be corrected in the next printing) and an illustration showing a cigar-smoking mechanic working on the Wrights’ first gasoline engine (a clear safety violation in today’s world, though a mechanic might not have known gasoline was flammable in 1903, when it was a new fuel). Attractive, realistic watercolor illustrations on almost every page elevate the text and recreate the miracle of early flight, with the cover showing one of the Wrights clinging to the controls and truly flying by the seat of his pants. (Nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: July 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-689-81225-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
A book of the basic teachings of Buddha, presented through a collection of six classic, simple tales. When a monkey takes refuge from a monsoon in a cave, he happens upon a group of bickering animals—a monkey, lion, turtle, jackal, and dove. Before the fighting becomes too fierce, a small statue of Buddha begins to glow in the darkest corner. To pass the time—and to stop the fighting—wise Buddha spins enlightening stories of tolerance, endurance, sagacity, truthfulness, kindness, and clarity. Buddha recounts his past lives in many forms—from monkey to pigeon to willow tree—to his captive listeners. Such straightforward yet profound tales combine with the art and design for an example of bookmaking that is aesthetically pleasing in every way. Color-washed linoprints cleverly distinguish the stories from the black-and-white narrative frame, while an informative afterword offers brief background detail about Buddha and these six “birth stories” known as Jatakas. (Picture book/folklore. 4-7)
Pub Date: April 8, 1999
ISBN: 0-374-33548-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
Readers won’t find this neighbor strange; he merely entertains an age-old desire to fly. But hark back a 120 years, when this story takes place, and one can begin to appreciate the skeptics who surround Melville Murrell, technically the creator of the first human-powered airplane two decades before the Wright brothers. To the narrator, it’s strange that “our neighbor” studies birds, makes drawings, and tries to be airborne. The title sentence becomes a bleating refrain, turning the book into a one-kick joke when Murrell’s contraption flies and the narrator is almost rendered speechless. Krudop’s paintings, with their great slabs of vibrant color, are atmospheric delights, conjuring up Murrell as the eccentric his neighbors believe him to be, and the era as one in which innovators were no more appreciated—at least till they struck it rich—than they are today. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30107-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
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