Sky Sailors: True Stories of the Balloon Era (review)

Take aeronautics back, back, back before space shuttles, moon missions, airplanes, and dirigibles, and you arrive with Bristow at the late eighteenth to early twentieth century heyday of tethered and free-floating balloon flight, with its fearsome novelty and peculiar perils. Bristow traces the development of this lighter-than-air technology by examining some dozen or so practitioners, from scientists to showmen and -women, who used balloon ascent for everything from pure entertainment, to military surveillance, to exploration. Readers who may have had earlier picture-book encounters with the like of the Montgolfier brothers and their airborne animals (Priceman's Hot Air, BCCB 7/05) or Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and his American balloon debut (Wallner's The First Air Voyage in the United States, BCCB 5/96) will recognize old friends, but it's likely that few will know much, if anything, about other elements in Bristow's history, such as Blanchard's widow, Sophie, who set off fireworks from her highly flammable hydrogen-filled balloon; Coxwell and Glaisher's 1862 record-setting high-altitude ascent (sans oxygen tanks); or the 1858 accidental adventure of young siblings Martha and David Harvey in a runaway balloon. Mini physics lessons are incorporated throughout the text on a need-to-know basis, and even the youngest readers should grasp the essence of Bristow's concise explanations. A wealth of period illustrations, some in color, are included, and captions frequently point out errors in visual representation, due either to misinformation or to the urge to satisfy a thrill-hungry audience. With thorough source notes, an extensive bibliography, and a list of recommended websites (though no index), this is an inviting title for kids making their first ascents into longer works of nonfiction.