July 17 – Wrong Way Corrigan Day

Happy Wrong Way Corrigan Day!

Douglas Corrigan is famous for flying the wrong way from California to New York, and ending up in Ireland. Now, that’s really going off-course! Share one of these picture books with someone you love, you won’t go wrong!

Flying written and illustrated by Gail Gibbons (1999)

This is a non-fiction book about the history of flight from the early Greeks and Romans to space flight. In simple to read and understand text, Gail Gibbons presents readers with basic concepts of flight, beginning with the first successful passenger balloon in France which carried a duck, a rooster, and a sheep. Next came hot air balloons, dirigibles, and planes with wings. Readers can learn about  gliders, small propeller planes, pontoons, helicopters, jet planes, rocket ships and space shuttles.

Flying written and illustrated by Donald Crews (1989)

This is another non-fiction picture book about flying. Younger readers will enjoy the artwork and the simple one word or one sentence pages. In these simple pages, a story is shown of a young boy waving goodbye to someone at the gate to take a solo flight cross-country to the two people who are waiting for him. From the window of the plane, the reader can see the airport, highways, cities, rivers, country, and mountains until the boy finally reaches his destination.

Pilot Pups written by Michelle Meadows and illustrated by Dan Andreasen (2008)

The pilot pups are on a mission to rescue their friends who have been abandoned in the back yard. The must fly the toy plane off the dresser and through the house, avoiding the mountains, fog, and peaks. This rhyming picture book takes the reader on a magical toy adventure which ends happily with everyone safe and sound.

Violet the Pilot written and illustrated by Steve Breen (2008)

Violet is a little girl who loves to tinker repairing and building things. What she loves most of all is building flying machines. She built and flew a tub-bubbler, a bicycopter, a rocket can, a pogo plane, a slide glider, and a wing-a-ma-jig just to name a few. But at school, Violet is teased for her strange books and greasy coveralls. One day, Violet sees an advertisement for an air show. She decides to build a plane and enter the show. She builds a magnificent new flying machine which she names The Hornet. On her way to the air show, she and her dog Orville get sidetracked rescuing a troop of boy scouts stranded in the river when their canoe capsized. Violet missed the air show, but was surprised when the troop of scouts came back to her house with the news media and the town’s mayor. Violet received the medal of valor and Orville got a new collar with the license that said K-9 Hero!