Three new picture books capture the inventive spirit and determination of Wibur and Orville Wright. Peter Busby's First to Fly and Mary Collins' Airborne are longer non-fiction picture books. Jane Yolen's My Brothers' Flying Machine: Wilbur, Orville and Me is a lyrical first person narrative written from the viewpoint of Katharine Wright, sister of the famous brothers.
The non-fictions, Airborne and First to Fly are both loaded with old photographs. Each book has different illustrations to offer and both have a great balance of science, history, and a sense of Will and Orv (as the Wright brothers were called). The main difference comes in focus.
First to Fly really zooms in on the famous first flight. There's plenty of prep that explains the Wrights' life experiments and experiences, but the book really takes off when it describes the first flight with a blow-by-blow account that makes you feel as if you're right there on those windy North Carolina beaches!
Airbourn: A Photobiography of Wilbur and Orville Wright is published by National Geographic and has a strong scientific leaning. Author Mary Collins shows how the Wright Brothers faced a seemingly endless scientific process. Their method was filled with careful observation, painstaking routines, difficult experimenting, lots of tinkering, and sudden serendipities. All ofwhich combined for eventual success.
Katharine Wright, Wilbur and Orville's sister, provided continual support and was an emotional anchor after their mother died. She nursed Orville after a crash and packed a surprise jar of jam in Wilbur's bag. That was the only thing he ate on a rough two day boat trip to Kitty Hawk. It makes sense for Jane Yolen to use Katharine as her viewpoint character in My Brothers' Flying Machine. Yolen's book is written in short verse-like lines. These hint at the poetic form her story takes. There are lots of facts and specific quotations woven into her telling, but it's the emotional quality, sensory details and effective rhythms that make this book special. You get a sense of hawk-faced messy Will who sends away for Smithsonian books to better understand flight and the neat red-mustached Orv who makes Katharine believe flight is possible. Kitty Hawk, Yolen writes, is a "two-hundred-mile strip of sand with the ocean at its face and North Carolina at its back" where mosquitoes leave "lumps like hen's eggs" and a blustering winter freezes washbasins solid.
This trio of books represent the inventive duo splendidly. First to Fly holds the excitement their work inspired, Airborne accents the scientific method that led to success, and My Brothers' Flying Machine portrays the humanity of two men driven to invent and contribute.
Mary Collins, Airborne: A Photobiography of Wilbur and Orville Wright (Natinal Geographic, $18.95)
Jane Yolen, My Brothers' Flying Machine, Wilbur, Orville and Me (Little Brown, $16.95)
Peter Busby, First To Fly: How Wilbur and Orville Wright Invented the Airplane (Crown,$19.95)