Skywriting

Gr 4—6—Thirteen poems celebrate innovations in flight, soaring chronologically from Icarus to the space shuttle Columbia. Not all of the airborne contraptions were successful, as in the humorous poem "Marquis d'Equevilley's Multiplane"; with an oval shape, "It was not bound/Ever to get off/the ground!" All but one of the poems rhyme, including the shape poem, "The Concorde 001." The free verse "LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin" sounds more textbook than poetic. Detailed pen-and-ink illustrations with pastel watercolors highlighting the colors of the sky, pilots, and hopeful crowds convey the excitement and wonder humans have experienced in the pursuit of flight. Endnotes offer a paragraph of introductory information about each attempt. A time line with one notable fact from each of the 13 years marked by these forms of flight, from 800 BC to AD 2002, is included. Lee Bennett Hopkins's Give Me Wings (Holiday House, 2010), which also features 13 poems about flight, is for a slightly younger audience.—Julie R. Ranelli, Queen Anne's County Free Library, Stevensville, MD