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UP IN THE AIR: THE STORY OF THE WRIGHT BROTHERS
by Brian Floca
Ages 8 and up.
Breakfast Serials.
Up in the Air: The Story of the Wright Brothers is an 18-chapter illustrated story published by Breakfast Serials. Up in the Air has run in serial form – one or two chapters appearing per week – in over 120 newspapers nationwide.
Up in the Air follows Wilbur and Orville Wright from boyhood to 1908. It illustrates the genius, ambition, and stubbornness that led to the brothers’ first brief flight at remote Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903. The story then follows the brothers back home to Dayton, Ohio, and eventually to France, where, in 1908, Wilbur made the first real public demonstrations of the brothers’ work. Those demonstrations were the moment of great triumph for the brothers—the moment at which the world recognized Wilbur and Orville as the inventors of the airplane, the moment at which their lives and our world were changed.
Up in the Air is historical fiction. It aims to bring immediacy, uncertainty, and risk to what may be a familiar story. At the same time, a goal of Up in the Air is to be true the ideas, events, motives, and methods that led to Wilbur and Orville Wright’s inventions. Source materials included The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright: Including the Chanute-Wright Letters and Other Papers of Octave Chanute, which offer a fascinating, over-the-shoulder view of the invention of the flying machine. The story was vetted by Tom Crouch, historian and author of numerous books and articles on the Wright Brothers, including the acclaimed The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright.
Click here to read more about Up in the Air and Breakfast Serials.
Click here to read a Newspapers in Education interview with Brian Floca about Up in the Air.