The Flying Girl by Mararita Engle

Here is a short picture book biography of Aida Acosta.  When she was a teen age girl, Aida traveled to Paris (she was an American) and while there saw Alberto Santos-Dumont flying in a homemade dirigible.  Aida was entranced and wanted to learn to fly one herself.  She contacted M. Dumont and took flying lessons.  When it was time for her to have her first flight, she insisted in flying solo.  She flew the ship several miles across France and landed safely in a field.  This was 6 months before the Wright Brothers flew a Kitty-hawk. The story is almost rhyming, or rhyming in some places and not so well in others.  I kind of wish they hadn't tried to rhyme.  It was a good enough story to stand on its own as prose.  Still, I liked the book with its bright, lively pictures.(2018, 31 p.)