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!

In this first installment of the brand new Epic Fails series, Ben Thompson and Erik Slader take readers through the Wright brothers' many mishaps and misadventures as they paved the way for modern aviation.

The Epic Fails series takes a humorous and unexpected view of history, exploring the surprising stories behind a variety of groundbreaking discoveries, voyages, experiments, and innovations, illustrating how many of mankind's biggest successes are in fact the result of some pretty epic failures.

This title has Common Core connections.

Ben Thompson is the author of a dozen books on various awesome historical subjects including the Guts & Glory series, and has appeared on television programs for the History Channel, Discovery, and the American Heroes Channel. He has written for Cracked, Fangoria, Soldier of Fortune, and The American Mustache Institute, currently owns four swords (if you count a letter opener shaped like Glamdring the Foe-Hammer), and can occasionally beat the Star Wars Trilogy arcade game with a single quarter.

Erik Slader is the creator of “Epik Fails of History” a blog and podcast about the most epic fails… of history.

With Ben Thompson, Erik is the coauthor of the Epic Fails series, including The Wright Brothers: Nose-Diving Into History and Race to Space: Countdown to Liftoff.

Tim Foley was born in Flint, Michigan, and since attending college at the Kendall School of Design, has made his home in Grand Rapids on the west side of the state. A freelance illustrator for the past three decades, his work has appeared in magazines and newspapers around the world and books have included many titles in the bestselling young adult "Who Was" biography series, as well as several adult coloring books.

Categories

• Juvenile Nonfiction / Transportation / Aviation
• Juvenile Nonfiction / Biography & Autobiography / Science & Technology
• Juvenile Nonfiction / History / United States / 20th Century

Product Details

ISBN: 9781250150561
ISBN-10: 1250150566
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Publication Date: July 10th, 2018
Pages: 128
Language: English
Series: Epic Fails

Recommended Reading Level

Minimum Age: 8
Maximum Age: 12
Minimum Grade Level: 3
Maximum Grade Level: 7

"[A] tribute to the spirit of invention." — Booklist

"A fact-filled title sure to boost the confidence of aspiring inventors. . . VERDICT An informative and humorous addition to middle school STEM biography collections." — School Library Journal

"Information-book fans and skeptics alike will want to get in on the ground floor of this promising new series." — The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (BCCB)