Airborne: A Photobiography of Wilbur and Orville Wright

by Mary Collins

Overview

This is the inspiring photobiography of Wilbur and Orville Wright, whose determination and curiosity led them to create the first working airplane. The newest edition adds common core-aligned critical thinking activities for even further learning in the classroom or at home. 

Packed with intriguing photos of Wilbur and Orville Wright, their family, and their many experiments, this photobiography reveals the personalities and lives of these extraordinary young men who resolved those problems of flight that stumped the experts and built the first airplane that really could fly!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781426322211
Publisher:	Disney Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/04/2015
Series:	Photobiographies
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 9.22(h) x 0.14(d)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

MARY COLLINS grew up in New England, but spent most of her professional career in Washington, D.C., where she worked as a consulting writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including National Geographic and the Smithsonian,and taught writing part-time for 12 years at Johns Hopkins University's MA in Writing Program.

Editorial Reviews

Sixty period photographs, reproduced as large-scale duotones, illuminate Airborne: A Photobiography of Wilbur and Orville Wright by Mary Collins, newest in the publisher's photobiography series. Images range from the famous (the December 17, 1903, flight at Kitty Hawk) to the less glamorous (Wilbur cooking in the 1902 hangar where he and Orville slept, worked and stored their glider) to the thrillingly atmospheric (French farmers stand by their ox-drawn carts, looking up as Wilbur sails overhead). Printed with eloquent quotes from the Wrights, the photos accompany an insightful text that includes an especially lucid discussion of the Wrights' technological achievements. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Illustrated with family photos and punctuated by their own words, this book offers a new perspective of the men who made history at Kitty Hawk. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

In a field becoming crowded with stories of the Wright Brothers, a more technical one takes its place. Following on the heels, or rather the tailwind, of National Geographic's previously well-executed photobiography series, most recently Thomas Edison (Inventing the Future, 2002), this latest entry is equally excellent, if not exceptional. The impressive book design with 60 duotone archival photos, many tinted in metallic blue, telescopes Wilbur and Orville's ingenuity, determination, and vision. A foreword provides context, informing the reader that the brothers built a series of designs, perfected their invention, and became the world's first aeronautical engineers. Their flight marked the beginning of a new era in transportation, one that would change the world and the face of the future. The readable text in nice-sized type incorporates quotes from people of the times and relates their efforts to the tenor of the times. Definitions of terms and simple diagrams clarify technical explanations, making them understandable without losing the human element. A concise chronology, afterword, resources list, and index further document the meticulous research. A pleasure to hold and read while imparting the significance of the work of these two brothers who ran a bicycle shop, this is outstanding nonfiction that genuinely soars. (Nonfiction. 10+)

Kirkus Reviews