Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | EASY PRO | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Winner of the Caldecott Medal, this stunningly illustrated book depicts Louis Bleriot's historic first cross-Channel flight.
Author Notes
Alice Provensen was born Alice Rose Twitchell in Chicago, Illinois on August 14, 1918. She took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the University of California at Los Angeles before finding a job at the animation studio of Walter Lantz. She met her future husband, Martin Provensen, while he was working on a Navy training film during World War II. They married in 1944 and relocated to Washington D.C., where she worked as a graphic artist for the Office of Strategic Services. They later moved to New York and became known as an author-illustrator picture book team.
They created many award-winning picture books including A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Inexperienced Travelers by Nancy Willard, which won a 1982 Caldecott Honor, and The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot, which won the 1984 Caldecott Medal. Their other books included A Year at Maple Hill Farm, Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm, Karen's Curiosity, Karen's Opposites, The Fuzzy Duckling, Katie the Kitten, The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown, and A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. They also created Tony the Tiger, which was the advertising symbol of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes.
She continued working after her husband's death in 1987. Her books included The Buck Stops Here: The Presidents of the United States, A Day in the Life of Murphy, Punch in New York, and Klondike Gold. She died on April 23, 2018 at the age of 99.
Reviews (2)
Horn Book Review
The Provensens' sublime picture book (winner of the 1984 Caldecott Medal) about French aviation pioneer Blriot, the first man to fly across the English Channel, is once again available in hardcover. With breathtaking perspectives, gorgeous colors, engaging characters, and a tres droll text, the book not only transports readers to turn-of-the-twentieth-century France but also conveys the experience of flight with immediacy. martha v. parravano (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Factually accurate, yes--but also a witty pictorial reincarnation of Louis BlÉriot's first experience of an airship, his absoprtion in ""flying machines,"" and that first cross-Channel flight. . . in the BlÉriot XI. There's dash, style, and economy here--in both text and pictures. The Provensens narrate in an offhand present tense, with comments built in; the history of BlÉriot's aeronautical career is built in too; and because we first met him en famille, he is always, cannily, Papa BlÉriot. ""Papa has decided to learn to fly himself. BlÉriot III has a fine motor and a propeller, but it will not take off from the water. So Papa gives it two motors and two propellers to make BlÉriot IV. BlÉriot IV goes in beautiful circles. Papa is learning."" (BlÉriet V hops ""over the ground like a rabbit""; BlÉriot VI sails ""across a whole field before it hits a rock."") Against the vastness of sky and bare earth, the funny, flimsy machines and the funny, gesticulating figures make for exceptional visual drama, further heightened in the climactic airborne perspectives. But to the last celebration on the cliffs of Dover--BlÉriot again en famille--the illustrational tricks serve the creators' fond, amused conception of the subject. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
