As young boys, Orville and Wilbur Wright loved all things mechanical. As young men, they gained invaluable skills essential for their success. They worked with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and any sort of machinery they could get their hands on. As adults, the brothers worked together to invent, build, and fly the world’s first successful airplane. This is the story of the two inventors and aviation pioneers who never lost sight of their dream: to fly, and to soar higher!
Science Comics: Flying Machines: How the Wright Brothers Soared
Benjamin A. Wilgus, Illustrated by Molly Brooks
Follow the famous aviators from their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, to the fields of North Carolina where they were to make their famous flights. In an era of dirigibles and hot air balloons, the Wright Brothers were among the first innovators of heavier than air flight.
But in the hotly competitive international race toward flight, Orville and Wilbur were up against a lot more than bad weather. Mechanical failures, lack of information, and even other aviators complicated the Wright Brothers’ journey. Though they weren’t as wealthy as their European counterparts, their impressive achievements demanded attention on the international stage. Thanks to their carefully recorded experiments and a healthy dash of bravery, the Wright Brothers’ flying machines took off. 9-13 years
Wright Brothers: Inventors Whose Ideas Really Took Flight
By Mike Venezia
Meet the Wright Brothers! Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Inventors and Scientists series combines a mix of full-color historical reproductions, photos, and cartoon-style illustrations. These bring to life the work and contributions of renowned scientists and inventors.
The Wright Sister: Katharine Wright and her Famous Brothers
By Richard Maurer
Not many people know that the Wright brothers had a sister, Katharine Wright. She supported her high-flying, inventor brothers through their aviation triumphs and struggles. This is her story.
On a chilly December day in 1903, a young woman came home from her teaching job in Dayton, Ohio, to find a telegram waiting for her. The woman was Katharine Wright. The telegram, from her brother Orville, announced the first successful airplane flight in history. Richard Maurer tells Katharine’s story. Smart and well-educated, she was both confidant and caregiver to her bachelor brothers. She managed many of their affairs, traveling with them on frequent trips to demonstrate and promote their invention. She cared for them when they were sick from disease and injury. In doing so, she gave up her ambitions as a teacher and her early hopes of marriage.
The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane
By Russell Freedman
This is a narrative account of Orville and Wilbur Wright’s story. They had little formal schooling but a knack for solving problems. The book chronicles their lives from their early mechanical work on toys and bicycles through the development of several flyers. The Wright Brothers follows the siblings through their achievements—not only the first powered, sustained, controlled airplane flight, but the numerous improvements and enhancements.
The Wright Brothers For Kids: They Invented the Airplane, 21 Activities Exploring Science and the History of Flight
By Mary Kay Carson
This activity book tells the true story of how two bicycle-making brothers from Ohio, with no more than high-school educations, accomplished a feat that forever changed the world. At a time when most people still hadn’t ridden in an automobile, Wilbur and Orville Wright built the first powered, heavier-than-air flying machine.
Woven throughout the story of the two brothers are activities that highlight their ingenuity and problem-solving abilities as they overcame many obstacles to achieve controlled flight.
First Flight: The Wright Brothers DK Reader
By Leslie Garrett
In this DK Level 4 Reader, follow the story of brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright as they plan and build a flying machine!
Photographs combine with illustrations and age-appropriate stories to capture a child’s interest while developing their reading skills and general knowledge.
The Wright Brothers First Flight: A Fly on the Wall History
By Thomas Kingsley Troupe, Illustrated by Jomike Tejido
From a sandy North Carolina dune to mid air … Two cartoon flies join readers as they follow Orville and Wilbur Wright on their quest for flight. This book provides a blend of facts and fun while telling the story of a great moment in American and aviation history.
My Brother’s Flying Machine: Wilbur, Orville and Me
By Jane Yolen, Illustrated by Jim Burke
In celebration of the Wright Brothers’ flight, this story is told from the point of view of their sister, Katharine, who watched her brothers play with a toy flying machine, which was the beginning of their remarkable collaboration.
The Story of the Wright Brothers
By Annette Whipple
The Wright brothers were the first people ever to build and fly an airplane, doing what many people at the time didn’t think was possible. Before they made history with their airplane, Wilbur and Orville were curious kids who loved learning about the world around them and how it worked. They fell in love with the idea of flying and taught themselves everything they needed to know to make their dream come true.
Explore how the Wright brothers went from young boys growing up in Ohio to world-famous inventors, aviators, and businessmen. How will their hard work and big imaginations inspire you?
The Story of the Wright Brothers includes:
Lasting change―Learn about how the Wright brothers’ inventions changed how we live today.
Helpful glossary―Find definitions for some of the more advanced words and ideas in the book.
Visual timeline―Watch the Wright brothers progress from curious kids to famous flyers.
The Wright Brothers: Nose Diving into History
By Ben Thompson
A hilarious nonfiction look at two of history’s most epic “failures”: the Wright brothers, whose countless crashes ultimately led to groundbreaking success.
Although Orville and Wilbur Wright are celebrated today as heroes for their revolutionary contributions to science and engineering―they are acknowledged as the first men to successfully achieve powered, piloted flight―their success was hard-earned. (Spoiler alert: there were a lot of nosedives involved.) In fact, it took the self-taught engineers years of work and dozens of crashes before they managed a single twelve-second flight!
The book descriptions used are primarily from the publishers.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and/or leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
Wood, Wire, Wings: Emma Lilian Todd Invents an Airplane
By Kirsten W. Larson, Illustrated by Tracy Subisak
Emma Lilian Todd’s mind was always soaring–she loved to solve problems. Lilian tinkered and fiddled with all sorts of objects, turning dreams into useful inventions. As a child, she took apart and reassembled clocks to figure out how they worked. As an adult, typing up patents at the U.S. Patent Office, Lilian built the inventions in her mind, including many designs for flying machines. However, they all seemed too impractical.
Lilian knew she could design one that worked. She took inspiration from both nature and her many failures, driving herself to perfect the design that would eventually successfully fly. Illustrator Tracy Subisak’s art brings to life author Kirsten W. Larson’s story of this little-known but important engineer. 7-10 years
Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo daVinci
by Gene Barretta
In 1781, Thomas Paine came up with a model for a single-span bridge. In 1887, Adolf Eugen Fick made the first pair of contact lenses. And in 1907, Paul Comu built the first helicopter. But Leonardo da Vinci thought of all these ideas more than five hundred years ago! At once an artist, inventor, engineer, and scientist, da Vinci wrote and drew detailed descriptions of what would later become hang gliders, automobiles, robots, and much more. In Neo Leo, Gene Barretta shows how Leonardo’s ideas — many inspired by his love of nature — foreshadowed modern inventions, offering a window into the future.
The Boy Who Invented TV: The Story of Philo Farnsworth
by Kathleen Krull, Illustrated by George Couch
Plowing a potato field in 1920, a 14-year-old boy from Idaho saw in the parallel rows of overturned earth a way to “make pictures fly through the air.” This boy was not a magician. He was a scientific genius. Just eight years later he made his brainstorm in the potato field a reality. He transmitted the world’s first television image.
Hedy Lamarr’s Double Life: Hollywood Legend and Brilliant Inventor
By Laurie Wallmark, Illustrated by Katy Wu
To her adoring public, Hedy Lamarr was a glamorous movie star, widely considered the most beautiful woman in the world. But in private, she was something more: a brilliant inventor. And for many years only her closest friends knew her secret. Now Laurie Wallmark and Katy Wu tell the story of how, during World War Two, Lamarr developed a groundbreaking communications system that still remains essential to the security of today’s technology.
Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became An Inventor
by Emily Arnold McCully
With her sketchbook labeled My Inventions and her father’s toolbox, Mattie could make almost anything — toys, sleds, and a foot warmer. When she was just twelve years old, Mattie designed a metal guard to prevent shuttles from shooting off textile looms and injuring workers. As an adult, Mattie invented the machine that makes the square-bottom paper bags we still use today.
George Ferris What A Wheel
by Barbara Lowell, Illustrated by Jerry Hoare
Have you ever ridden a Ferris wheel? You can see for miles! But when the inventor of the Ferris wheel, George Ferris, first pitched the idea, everyone thought he was crazy. A 250-foot bicycle wheel that goes around and around and can carry 2,160 people in train size cars at the same time? Can’t be done, they said. But George proved them wrong. Teacher Guide available at:https://barbaralowell.com/teacher-guide-2/
George Crum and the Saratoga Chip
by Gaylia Taylor, Illustrated by Frank Morrison
Who invented the potato chip? George Crum did as a chef in a Saratoga Springs, New York restaurant in 1853. Who knew the potato chip was that old?
Papa’s Mechanical Fish
by Candace Fleming, Illustrated by Boris Kulikov
Clink! Clankety-bang! Thump-whirr! That’s the sound of Papa at work. Although he is an inventor, he has never made anything that works perfectly. That’s because he hasn’t yet found a truly fantastic idea. But when he takes his family fishing on Lake Michigan, his daughter Virena asks, “Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a fish? Papa is off to his workshop. With a lot of persistence and a little bit of help, Papa — who is based on the real-life inventor Lodner Phillips — creates a submarine that can takehis family for a trip to the bottom of Lake Michigan.
Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine
by Laurie Wallmark, Illustrated by Amy Chu
Ada Lovelace, the daughter of the famous romantic poet, Lord Byron, develops her creativity through science and math. When she meets Charles Babbage, the inventor of the first mechanical computer, Ada understands the machine better than anyone else and writes the world’s first computer program.
Eat My Dust! Henry Ford’s First Race
by Monica Kulling, Illustrated by Richard Walz
It’s 1901 and Henry Ford wants to build a car that everyone can own. But first he needs the money to produce it. How will he get it. He enters a car race, of course!
A Weed is a Flower: The Life of George Washington Carver
by Aliki
Award winning author and illustrator Aliki tells George Washington Carver’s story in this beautifully told and illustrated picture book.
Thomas Edison and His Bright Idea
by Patricia Brennan DeMuth, Illustrated by Jez Tuya
As a curious child who was always asking questions, it’s no wonder Thomas Edison grew up to become a famous, prolific inventor. This easy-to-read nonfiction story follows Edison from his time in school to his career as a full-time inventor. Edison’s discoveries will fascinate and inspire all curious young minds!
Who Were The Wright Brothers?
by James Buckley, Jr., Illustrated by Tom Foley
As young boys, Orville and Wilbur Wright loved all things mechanical. As young men, they gained invaluable skills essential for their success by working with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and any sort of machinery they could get their hands on. The brothers worked together to invent, build, and fly the world’s first successful airplane. These aviation pioneers never lost sight of their dream to fly and to soar higher!
The book descriptions used are primarily from the publishers.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and/or leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
