Flying Machines: How the Wright Brothers Soared (Science Comics Series)

by Benjamin A. Wilgus, Molly Brooks (Illustrator)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626721395
Publisher:	First Second
Publication date:	05/23/2017
Series:	Science Comics Series
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Benjamin A. Wilgus is a Brooklyn-based bestselling writer, editor, and cartoonist who's been working in comics for over a decade. He is the author of the SF graphic novel duology Chronin (Tor Books), which NPR called “timeless in more ways than one,” and Book Riot called “magical,” and which has garnered a host of glowing reviews. 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). Benjamin's New York Times bestselling work has been published by DC Comics, Dark Horse, Del Rey, and Scholastic, and he served as a script and story writer for Cartoon Network's "Codename: Kids Next Door." In his spare time, he co-hosts a podcast about comics publishing called "Graphic Novel TK" with Gina Gagliano.

Molly Brooks is a highly-sophisticated disaster machine fueled by green tea and jelly beans. She grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, and is currently based in Brooklyn. She has a BFA in Communication Design from Washington University in St. Louis, and an MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts. Her illustrations have appeared in The Village Voice, Time Out New York, The Nashville Scene, The Riverfront Times,The Toast, BUST Magazine, ESPN social, Sports Illustrated online, and others. She spends her spare time watching vintage buddy cop shows and making comics about knitting, hockey, and/or feelings.

Editorial Reviews

2017-03-29
In this entry in the Science Comics series, Katharine, the younger sister of Orville and Wilbur Wright, explains the science behind flight and how her brothers invented and flew the first successful airplane.The Wright brothers were not the first to try to create flying machines, nor were they alone in their era in experimenting with them. In addition to chronicling their failures and successes, the narrative discusses the work of other pioneers in heavier than air flight, such as Otto and Gustav Lilienthal and Alphonse Pénaud. Scientific concepts including Newton's laws of motion are clearly and concisely explained, as are technical components of the airplanes the Wright brothers invented and tested. Further innovations in flight are explained, ending with the invention of the jet engine. The text is informative and engagingly written, and the illustrations are colorful and appealing. A palette of brown, ocher, and blue-gray gives the graphic panels an appropriately antique feel. Unsurprisingly, they are almost exclusively populated by white people. Backmatter includes brief profiles of other aviation pioneers and a short biography of Katharine Wright. There is no bibliography or source notes and a surprising paucity of age-appropriate titles in the suggestions for further reading. An accessible and engaging introduction to the Wright brothers and how they ushered in the age of flight. (glossary, further reading) (Graphic nonfiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews

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

Praise for Science Comics: Flying Machines:

"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." —School Library Journal

"An accessible and engaging introduction to the Wright brothers and how they ushered in the age of flight." —Kirkus

From the Publisher

04/01/2017
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 "hélicoptère" invented by Alphonse Pénaud 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

School Library Journal