Touching the Sky: The Flying Adventures of Wilbur and Orville Wright

by Louise Borden, Trish Marx, Peter Fiore (Illustrator)

On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers took their historic first flight, and by 1909 the brothers were full-fledged celebrities. In September of that year, Wilbur and Orville finally showed the world, firsthand, just what they had achieved.
In the United States, Wilbur delighted the crowd with spectacular flying demonstrations in New York City during the city's Hudson-Fulton Celebration. He flew over the harbor, glided past tall buildings, looped the Statue of Liberty, and even traveled up the Hudson River to Grant's Tomb. The people of New York were astonished and thrilled to witness these unbelievable flights. At the same time, Orville held daring public exhibitions in Germany and set amazing new records. He flew the highest ever, and took the longest flight with a passenger. The Wright brothers opened doors that no one knew could be opened!

Louise Borden and Trish Marx document the extraordinary lives and achievements of two of our most celebrated American heroes, Wilbur and Orville Wright, from their humble beginnings to their later success and riches.

Genres: Nonfiction, Poetry, Picture Books

64 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2003

About the author

There were already two Louises in my family when I was born: my mother and my grandmother, Nana, who lived with us when I was growing up. So early on, I was given the name Leezie. This is a name that my family still calls me. Years later, my niece was born and also named Louise. Then there were four of us with the same name! Louise is a fine name to have except that people often spell it incorrectly. Sometimes my mail is addressed to Louisa, or Louisie, or Lewis, or Lois. Leezie is also tough for people to spell. Names and their pronunciations have always interested me, so writing about a teacher named Mrs. Kempczinski was a natural thing for me to do.

I grew up in a house at the top of a steep street in Cincinnati, Ohio, the kind of street that is a big challenge when you are pedaling uphill on your bicycle. My two sisters and I used to ride our bikes down, down our street, and then to the local dimestore to buy candy bars or meet up with our friends. But coming home, we had to pedal up our long hill. (This was before mountain bikes!) Pedaling slowly up my street may be where I learned perseverance, something all writers need when they are working alone at their desks.

Writing picture books came much later—after studying history in college, getting married, and raising three children. Even though I didn't grow up to be a composer, I like to think that my picture books are almost songs because the sound of words and the poetry of my style are so important in the texts that I write. I work very hard at my desk, revising and revising and revising, trying to find just the right words that will be beautiful or fun to read.

Reviews

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can I give this 6 stars please?!
I put it under Children's books because it has pictures and is easy to read but I think adults would enjoy it maybe even more. What an awesome story. It's about exhibition flights the Wright Brothers have in New York City and Europe. Amazing and really exciting. Surprisingly good book. Can't recommend it enough.

[Stephanie Bange · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revisiting a classic title...

Louise Borden and Trish Marx answer the question: What did the Wright Brothers do in 1909? Of course - show it off to the world!

After spending years perfecting their flight equipment and techniques, in the fall of 1909 the Wright Brothers were ready to show off their Wright Flyer III and begin making records. In late September, Wilbur was in New York City with his mechanic Charlie Taylor to show off their plane to the crowds assembled as part of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration. He made several successful flights in the south Manhattan area, one around the Statue of Liberty, finally flying up the Hudson River as far as Grant's Tomb, then back to Governor's Island. Meanwhile, Orville and his sister Katherine traveled to Berlin, Germany for exhibition flights. During this time, Orville broke many records including flying with the first royal prince as a passenger and flying higher than any aeroplane had before - over 1,500 feet. An epilogue tells what became of the brothers after these 2 flights, a map of lower Manhattan indicating landmarks of Wilbur's flights, a map of Germany showing location of Berlin and the 2 airfields Orville used, and an Aviation Time Line (though one error was detected - it was Neil Armstrong - another Ohio aviator and not Buzz Aldrin - who carried the piece of cloth from the Wright Flyer to the moon).

Poetic text by Louise Borden and Trish Marx glides along as it takes readers from an introduction/background on the development of flight by the Wright Brothers to an epic poem titled "Wilbur and the Red Canoe" set in New York then leaps across the Atlantic Ocean for "Higher, Orville, Higher!" set in Germany. The free verse lyrics read aloud as if prose. Full of facts, I would have liked to seen some source notes or bibliography for more information.

Peter Fiore's watercolor illustrations pair beautifully with the text. Never overwhelming, they always complement. He has done a marvelous job of matching articles from the past in the correct time period.

Pair this with Wilbur Wright Meets Lady Libert by Robert Burleigh and Wendell Minor (illus.), Henry Holt/Macmillan, c2021 for a quick spin around the statue.

Highly Recommended for grades K-5.

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

We all enjoyed this book - especially after our recent trip to NYC and the background of McCullough's book.

[Courtney Lauren Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would say this book is more geared towards a little higher advanced readers. The book explains the story of Wilbur and Orville Wright, the Wright brothers that created and successfully flew the first airplane. The book begins with a short introduction that give the readers a good amount of background knowledge on the brothers, their lives, and their inspirations and adventures of building the first airplane. Each part of the story is separated with bolded titles. Each of those parts tells a different story of an event that led them to their first flight. As the end of the book draws near, an epilogue is placed. This is a nice way to close out the book especially for younger readers.

I thought this book was really well done,There is a lot of factual information in this text, and it is displayed in larger paragraph forms of information. I think because of this fact this book should be read by a more advanced reader in higher elementary grades. The information was fun and interesting to read, but i do think that it could be cut down and organized a little bit better. The illustrations were so well done that they looked lifelike. They are simply beautiful! Finally my last praise about this book is the pieces of information about he authors and illustrator. I think those too were interesting to read. This book was very well done and made learning fun.