Blog Entry #25

How People Learned to Fly

By Fran Hodgkins

Illustrated by True Kelley

Collins Publishers, 2007

30 pages

Nonfiction

 

            I chose How People Learned to Fly, because I thought the title was interesting and wanted to read about it. This book connects with the thoughts and answers the questions children would have about flying. It really explains scientific things like gravity, drag, thrust, wind, lift, wing shape, and engines. It also gives some details about the history of flight and some of the first machines made to test flight. It basically explains what it takes to fly, and I found it pretty interesting. One very interesting fact in the book was about an English man named Monk Elimer. He strapped some wings on his arms and broke his legs after a 15 second flight in A.D. 1010.

            The medium was not mentioned in the book, but it looks like it was done using acrylic painting. Some of the illustrations resemble watercolor painting, so it could be a mix of both media. I assumed painting was the medium used because of the visible brushstrokes in the illustrations. The illustrations have depth and texture, and some look realistic but some look like cartoonist style. The planes, birds, and landscapes look realistic, but the people look like cartoon characters. The illustrations are very bright and contain a lot of blue sky, which would be appropriate for a book about flying.

           

          How People Learned to Fly would probably be more appropriate for third grade and up, since it contains a lot of content area subject matter. This book could be added to a classroom library for a student to read independently, if they are interested in the subject. A teacher could use this book for a read aloud if he/she were doing a science lesson on flight. There are a lot of experiments that could stem from reading this book. It could be used as an introduction to the history of flight, although it does not go into great detail about that. There are plenty of opportunities to teach new vocabulary from How People Learned to Fly. This book has no awards or honors.