The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane

by Russell Freedman

Book Overview

A Newbery Honor-winning biography of the men whose experiments brought about the Age of Flight.

This engaging narrative account of Orville and Wilbur Wright, two men with little formal schooling but a knack for solving problems, follows their interest from a young age in the developing field of aeronautics. Russell Freedman's writing brings the brothers' personalities to life, enhancing the record of events with excerpts from the brothers'...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0823408752
• ISBN13: 9780823408757
• Release Date: March 1991
• Publisher: Holiday House
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 1.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 10.3" x 9.5"
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 5 and higher

Customer Reviews

The Wright Brothers is probably the best book ever written

Wilbur Wright, the brother with visions, invented the airplane along with Orville Wright, the brother who loved to tinker. Wilbur once said, " My brother Orville and myself lived together, played together and, in fact thought together." Wilbur and Orville persevered in their struggle against Mother Nature, the public opinion, and failed flights and experiments to fulfill their dream of making a flying machine. This biography tells the story of the lives of the Wright brothers, from the time they were little boys tinkering with toys, to when they finally sold their marvelous invention to the United States government. This book shows how the airplane started out as a glider, then evolved into a plane that stayed in the air for 5 seconds, and finally into a plane that stayed in the air for an hour and 13 minutes. It also explains how getting the government to buy their plane was a difficult task because it had already spent $70,000 on another person who tried to invent the airplane. Luckily, the government said yes after the Wright brothers had built a better plane. This book also contains miraculous pictures of Wilbur and Orville's flights and failures. I recommend this book to anybody who enjoys biographies or who wants to sit back and relax with a good book. This book is an all around good read but what especially sticks out is that it shows that if you put your mind to something you can always accomplish it, no matter how difficult the task.

Read Me

I read The Wright Brothers by Russel Freedman. This book describes the lives of our countries aeronautical pioneers,Wilbur and Orville Wright,and how they invented the first true airplane. From the time they were children, Wilbur and Orville lived together, played together, worked together ,and even thought together. From their tiny bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. to the Kitty Hawk Island sand dunes. These two men defied known ideas about flight and built their own self-propelled craft that soared them to fame. Even today, a little over a hundred years after their first self-propelled manned flight, these two men are remembered for their courage. I would recomend this book to anyone interested in either the Wright Brothers or the history of flight in general. If it were not for these two, man would not have gotten of the ground!

Excellent title, recommended

This biography on the Wright Brothers gets a big plus with the pictures it contains, many of which, thanks to the Wrights' interest in photography, were taken by the brothers themselves. The centerpiece of all the photos, of course, is the famous lift-off of the world's first manned, controlled, sustained, successful powered flight in a heavier-than-air craft on December 17, 1903.The accompanying text is clear and interspersed with generous quotes from journals and letters, written by the brothers, acquaintances, and family. Relating in excellent detail the Wrights' lives from childhood to the height of their success in 1909 (as well as giving a basic account of airplane history up to 1903), Freedman goes over the Wrights' later years in just one chapter, which is its biggest drawback. Still, considering the focus of the book, this brief overview is understandable. Bonus features include information on the Wrights' use of photography during their work, descriptions of places connected to the brothers and flight, and a list of books for further reading.The material used by Freedman is heavily based on the three most recent standards of Wright biography: Tom D. Crouch's "The bishop's boys: a life of Wilbur and Orville Wright" (1989), Fred Howard's "Wilbur and Orville: a biography of the Wright Brothers" (1987), and Peter L. Jakab's "Visions of a flying machine: the Wright Brothers and the process of invention" (1990).With its readability and accuracy, this book would be an excellent addition to public and school libraries, and despite being classified as juvenile literature, adults could also enjoy this biography of the Wright Brothers. A Newbery Honor book.

Great story of a major invention affecting the whole world.

I loved reading this book and lent it to a friend and never got it back. I wish I had never lent it out. It was fun to visit Kitty Hawk, NC after reading this book and see a lot of the historical artifacts associated with the history of flight.

Simple & lucid, yet detailed -- absolutely excellent

This book is written with precision and detail. Yet, since it is aimed at young readers, it is clear and easy to read. The author explains in simple, easily understood language, the seminal inventions of the Wright Brothers. It is an excellent book for any adult who wants to truly understand how the Wright Brothers invented the airplane. I would reccommend it to any person over the age of 12.