Flying Machines: How the Wright Brothers Soared (Science Comics)
by Alison Wilgus (Author) Molly Brooks (Illustrator)
A National Science Teachers Association Best STEM Books of 2017
Take to the skies with Flying Machines!
Follow the famous aviators from their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, to the fields of North Carolina where they were to make their famous flights. In an era of dirigibles and hot air balloons, the Wright Brothers were among the first innovators of heavier than air flight. But in the hotly competitive international race toward flight, Orville and Wilbur were up against a lot more than bad weather. Mechanical failures, lack of information, and even other aviators complicated the Wright Brothers' journey. Though they weren't as wealthy as their European counterparts, their impressive achievements demanded attention on the international stage. Thanks to their carefully recorded experiments and a healthy dash of bravery, the Wright Brothers' flying machines took off.
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School Library Journal
Gr 5-8—This graphic account of the Wright brothers' achievement skimps on biographical details but tells a grand tale of invention, demonstrating how systematic research and experimentation—punctuated with occasional flashes of brilliant insight—can really pay off. Serving as narrator, interviewer, and cheerleader, Orville and Wilbur's younger sister Katharine squires readers from her brothers' childhood encounter with a small rubber band powered -helicoptere- invented by Alphonse Penaud through their final triumph, then swoops through a quick history of later aviation, with particular attention to Englishman Frank Whittle's work on turbojets in World War II. She pauses at appropriate points to survey contemporaneous aeronautical progress in France and elsewhere. She also delivers lucid explanations of Newton's laws of motion, aerodynamics, and other significant scientific principles, as well as full, exact specs for each of the Wrights' gliders and powered aircraft. (The small panels of brown and gold color art give way to more freely organized pages of carefully detailed monochrome diagrams and drawings.) Along with nods to many of aviation's other early pioneers, Wilgus and Brooks close with a profile of Katharine Wright herself. VERDICT Inspirational reading for budding middle grade inventors and engineers—valuable for its broad picture of aviation's early history and for providing specifics about the technical problems the Wright brothers faced and solved.—John Peters, Children's Literature Consultant, New York
Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission
Kirkus
Review quotes
Praise for the Science Comics series:
This series—written by a handful of authors—seems determined to offer a useful introduction to anything a curious grade-school student might wonder about. The insight behind these books is a powerful one. So much information about the world around us is actually better conveyed visually, through charts, illustrations, and sequential panels, than purely using words. —New York Times
Like having a Time Life Science Library in comic books. Which is awesome! —Popular Science
Benjamin A. Wilgus is a Brooklyn-based author of comics and prose. He got his start as an animation writer on Codename: Kids Next Door, and his work has since been published by Scholastic, Nickelodeon Magazine, Del Rey, Dark Horse, and Tor.com, among others. His middle grade graphic novel Science Comics: Flying Machines (with artist Molly Brooks) was named one of the National Science Teachers Association's Best STEM Books for 2018. He is also the writer of the YA graphic novel The Mars Challenge (with artist Wyeth Yates).
Molly Brooks grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, received her MFA in illustration from the School of Visual Arts, and is currently based in Brooklyn. Her illustrations have appeared in The Village Voice, The Guardian, The Boston Globe, Time Out New York, The Toast, BUST Magazine, Sports Illustrated online, and elsewhere.JNF057010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Transportation | Aviation
JNF062000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Comics & Graphic Novels | General
United States
Graphic novels
Wright, Orville
Wright, Wilbur
Aeronautics
Cartoons and comics
Comics (Graphic works)
Historical comics
Biographical comics
