Our school is a Civil Air Patrol/Air Force Association Aerospace Education School. We use the Aerospace Connections in Education (ACE) curriculum to support our STEM program in grades K-5, so I am always on the lookout for new books about flight and space. This picture book biography of Otto Lilienthal tells how his boyhood dream of flying like the birds led to 30 years of inventing and improving his designs. Hailed by the Wright brothers as their greatest inspiration, Lilienthal created gliders with flappable wings and wanted to find a way to create an engine light and powerful enough to be used on his inventions. The backmatter in the book includes images from his design sketches and a note from the author about having to find a translator to research in the material written in German about this figure from the early years of man's path to powered flight. An archival photo of Otto flying in one of his gliders graces the back cover of the book. Illustrations in the book were created with a combination of digital watercolor, gouache and colored pencils. Images show the Lilienthal brothers (Otto and Gustav) at work creating different versions of machines with flappable wings and testing them out. One even looks like it is powered by an elliptical machine!
A great story for demonstrating the power of perseverance, as well as introducing young readers to an early aviation pioneer they may not have heard of before. The book is due for publication on December 6. I read an advance copy provided by the publisher for review purposes.
For more information about Lilienthal, visit the Otto Lilienthal Museum. There are photo archives, a timeline of Otto's life, essays and correspondence, and information about his younger brother Gustav.
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