Wood, Wire, Wings: Emma Lilian Todd Invents an Airplane

In windswept digital watercolors, Subisak depicts her as an active, confident figure.... Todd herself was not a pilot, but her story pairs naturally with those about the first generations of female aviators. 

A heroine of the skies is given her due....(a) person who disappeared into history after adding to the knowledge of the era, Todd is resurrected here as a role model who can provide encouragement and inspiration by virtue of her single-minded dedication and resilience...(e)nergetic, thoughtful text punctuated by Todd's own words and Subisak's inventive, warmly outlined full-color illustrations follow her life....(c)elebrates its subject's resilience as much as her contributions to STEM and aeronautics. 

Gr 2-4--While the Wright brothers are known for inventing the first airplane, another inventor wanted to make the design of the airplane more practical. Emma Lilian Todd, sparked by curiosity to tinker, engineer, and invent even as a child, worked to build her own airplane. The illustrations give life to this narrative nonfiction account of Todd's upbringing and her thirst for solving problems through prototyping. Each gear and each part used in her childhood mechanical creations is drawn with noticeable detail. Movement is depicted through wispy clouds and bold strokes in the sky when the story focuses on Todd's fascination with flight. Vivid colors add a warm, rich tone to match the extraordinary effort and care that Todd put into inventing. Quotations from the book's subject and others mentioned in her story are sprinkled throughout the narrative, providing insight into Todd's creative process. A detailed author's note, photographs of the real Todd and her airplane models (with photo credits), a time line, and a selected bibliography are included in the back matter. VERDICT This inspiring work shines a light on a lesser-known inventor who was the first woman to design an airplane. An excellent purchase for public and elementary school biography collections.--Molly Dettmann, Norman North High School, OK

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

"To Emma Lilian Todd, problems were like gusts of wind: they set her mind soaring." Persistence in the face of repeated failures is a recurring theme in this book about Todd, a little-known pioneer in early-20th-century aviation design. Todd's childhood love of tinkering--"She took apart a clock.... She put the pieces back together this way. No tick. She put the pieces back that way. No tock"--serves her well in her adult quest to design a working airplane. (Todd is quoted: "There is no work so discouraging, so exasperating, so delightful, so mean, so difficult, so exhilarating as building aeroplanes.") Larson's author's note mentions that "many of Lilian Todd's ideas don't survive in modern airplanes." Todd's plucky perseverance appeals, and Subisak's cheerily cluttered loose-lined illustrations conjure a world of patent diagrams, dreams, experimental machines, and grit. An author's note includes photographs and supplemental information. Ages 7-10. (Feb.)

Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.