This Aviation Lifestyle
Aviation Reads for Children and Students of all ages
As another school year approaches, I am reminded of being many times in various school libraries digging around the shelves there looking for what I call, “good-reads”. Good-reads are the books I’ve always picked up during my school days, even now while finishing up graduate school, that are purely for fun reading. They’re separate from all of the research, reference and required readings that come with the territory of classes and coursework. Good-reads enact a kind of “brain break” in between lots of research, studying and paper writing. These kinds of books are also different from Summer-Reads in that they are literature which engages the mind and imagination beyond a cute story or easy beach read. Writing that has the reader wondering what-if or thinking what, wow and how? Words and even pictures and illustrations which cause the reader to pause and ponder awhile. That’s why I call these “good” because they are indeed good for us all to encounter every now and then within our busy lives going on.
The enjoyment of a good-read is a lot like the enjoyment of a good flight. Both share similar elements including relaxation, a sense of being within a natural flow of things and personal interest maintained throughout the process. Writer and reader, pilot and passenger- all are better from the experience.
Let’s inspire future generations of aviation enthusiasts and professionals by directing younger readers towards some good-reads with aviation themes. Below are listed a few that I’ve come across for a starting place to begin with in finding on bookshelves, and book store web sites, various books that will engage the mind for years to come:
Pre-School and Grade School
• Amazing Airplanes by Tony Mitton
• Airport by Byron Barton
• Angela’s Airplane by Robert Munsch
• Fred and Ted Like To Fly by Peter Anthony Eastman
Junior Highschool
• The Wright Brothers: How They Invented The Airplane by Russell Freedman
• A Day with a Pilot by Bob Woods
• DK Big Book of Airplanes by Anne Millard
• Talkin’ About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman by Nikki Grimes
Highschool/College
• Airman’s Odyssey by Antione de Saint-Euxpery
• Book of Flight: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum by Judith Rinard
• Airframe by Michael Crichton
• Inside The Sky: A Meditation on Flight by William Langewiesche
And for adults who are still actively learning and engaging with life experience whether going back to school or just keeping our eager minds open to whatever’s out there to learn from, here are a few good-read suggestions for us as well:
• New World Coming by Nathan Miller
• The Greatest Flying Stories Ever Told by Lamar Underwood
• Women With Wings: Female Flyers in Fact and Fiction by Mary Cardogan
• Saint-Exupery by Stacy Schiff
I would also include in this adult list any biography of an aviator as well. It’s always enlightening to read the background and surround-story of famous and influential individuals throughout aviation’s developing history. A biography I really enjoyed and have reread more than once is Anne Morrow Lindbergh- Her Life by Susan Hertog. One of the reasons it is such an engaging good-read is that the author really puts into context the world, and dawning of international aviation, that was taking place throughout Anne Lindbergh’s lifetime and life experiences.
Good luck to all the students out there with this new school year beginning and lots of good reading wished to everyone!
by Lachlan Ivy