This unique book for kids offers a history of aviation through poetry and illustration. It begins with the story from Greek mythology about the flight of Icarus. Icarus used wax to hold together the feathers of the wings he constructed. He flew too close to the sun causing the wax to melt, however, and he went plunging into the Aegean Sea.

The idea of flight continued to tantalize people. Edward P. Frost, an English pioneer of aviation featured in the book, built a flying machine called an ornithopter with flapping wings that actually lifted off the ground (with the help of an internal combustion engine). You can see one of the wings in London’s Science Museum.

Several innovators in the use of hot air balloons are included, like the Frenchman who took a horse aloft with him, and a Belgian, Étienne-Gaspard Robert, who used balloons to investigate meteorological activity. Famously, he proposed building “The Minerva,” a large air-ship capable of holding around sixty people who could live aboard for several months (with “water, wine, and all the provisions of the expedition”) and conduct scientific observations.

The Wright Brothers get a poem, as does the Graf Zeppelin, the Concorde, and the Space Shuttle Columbia, inter alia.
The poems are both clever and informative. As an example, here is how the author describes the flight of Icarus:

“Tracing an angel’s tracks,
He rose on wings of wax.
All heaven called his name
And he took reckless aim
To be the chosen one
First to kiss the Sun!

He started to perspire
In universal fire,
As if God struck a match,
So Icarus could catch
Its light and hold it long.

But he was wrong.”

Endnotes give a history of each of the milestones in flight highlighted in the book, which concludes with a timeline.

Illustrator Laszlo Kubinyi uses pen and ink drawing and watercolors to create an appealing vintage postcard look enhanced by period details.

Evaluation: The thirteen aviation milestones in this book are well chosen; they represent some of the more “fun” aspects of the trajectory of flight. The clever poems will entertain as well as educate. This is one of those books that will have children asking for more information, always a laudable attribute of a book. ( )

Love the combination of history and poetry, the poems are fun and you also learn alot about the history of flight some known some unknown. 4 stars. ( )