Interesting information arranged chronologically. Plenty of photographs, color, different spreads throughout lend interest to the eye. Includes a helpful index and source list but also selected websites and places to visit.

Race through the Skies tells the story of the 1909 air meet in Rheims, France and the lives and careers of the early aviators who competed. The story of early flight is told in an engaging and exciting manner and includes aviators from different countries. The Wright brothers are included, but so are many aviators that are lesser known or who were famous in their day but have been largely forgotten. Overall, I enjoyed this book and found it to be both informative and entertaining.

A well-written, well-researched history of the Wright Brothers that will show the challenges and successes of aviation history with photos, biographies, and sidebars.

Younger readers can now see just what The Wright Brothers endured to bring the world the gift of flight. This book has plenty of pictures and sidebars to keep even the youngest students interested. It would make an excellent spine for a unit study for grade-schoolers through middle school.

E ARC provided by Netgalley



Ohio natives Orville and Wilbur Wright worked tirelessly on their planes, and made several brief flights in 1903, but it took more time for flight to be perfected and brought before audiences. After Wilbur set up a short in France and set to work on improving his planes and earning money for patents, he caught the attention of organizers who decided to have a week long air festival in Rheims in 1908. There were competitions that drew the participation of the best aviators flying at the time, and drew attention to this new form of travel. Sandler describes, day by day, the events of the show and the men (and a few women) who were involved in the spectacle.



The lay out of this book was extremely attractive, and filled with lots of period photographs showing all aspect of the proceedings. The vintage inspired page decorations, fonts, and layouts complemented the photographs beautifully, and gave this an air of a period souvenir book that I very much enjoyed. The inclusion of sidebars describing people, current events, or technology mentioned in the narrative was very helpful as well, and introduces a lot of unusual and unknown history, such as the development of the wristwatch, that begs further research!



While younger readers will thrill to the descriptions of harrowing races and tragedies and near tragedies of crashes, I found Wilbur's desire to work on his planes and finding manufacturers for them fascinating. He didn't participate in the competition because of his other work, even though there were substantial cash prizes, although another American, Glenn Curtiss, did. I've read a bit about the Wright brothers, but had somehow missed that fact they had promised their father they would not fly together.



Also interesting were the thumbnail biographies of the lives of the participants in the air show after it ended. Just like in Sheinkin's Born to Fly, there were all too many aviators who perished pursuing the dream of flight. Part of the appeal of early aviation was the danger and uncertainty, but there were many people whose dreams ended much sooner than they should have.



Sandler is an amazing researcher who has turned his attention to a wide range of topics, from 1919: The Year that Changed America to Kennedy Through the Lens to How the Beatles Changed the World. Not only are these great books for researching, but they are all riveting reading as well.