Good-Bye, Charles Lindbergh: Based on a True Story - Hardcover

"In 1929, on an ordinary day, in a Mississippi field, something big happened," begins this promising if not fully achieved picture book based on a real-life farm boy's chance encounter with Charles Lindbergh. Borden (Paperboy; The Little Ships) sets the scene convincingly as young Gil rides across the field bareback (he doesn't use the saddle, "because... it was a Kentucky saddle. And Kentucky saddles were for old men"), catches sight of a biplane and races for its likely landing area. The pilot turns out to be Lindbergh, whom Gil and other neighbors recognize from newspaper photos. A preliminary author's note has explained that Lindbergh was traveling from Mexico to New York City to attend a funeral; in the story, everyone is too awed and respectful to ask where he is going or where he has been. Instead, they warn him of an impending storm, and next morning they help free his plane from the resulting "ankle-deep" mud. Some readers may need help appreciating the significance of the transatlantic trip that built Lindbergh's astonishing fame, but the details about the flight here are enough to sustain their interest. Allen's (A Place Called Freedom) low-contrast colored-pencil art, however, has a wispiness that wraps the story in nostalgia, distancing the audience from the action. In the end, readers will understand why the incident is "something big" to Gil, but they are unlikely to share his excitement. Ages 5-9.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Kindergarten-Grade 3?In the spring of 1929, Harold Rea Gilpin, a young Mississippi farm boy, had the thrill of his life when the legendary Colonel Charles Lindbergh actually landed his plane near Harold's father's farm and spent the night in the pasture. Named Gil Wickstrom in this fictionalized version of the incident, the boy is riding an old white mare when he hears the sound of a plane overhead and follows it to the field where a crowd of neighbors has gathered to see this rarity. The tall, taciturn pilot sets up a pup tent under the wing of his plane for the night. He speaks little but admires Gil's horse. In the morning, the boy returns to help hold the Curtiss Falcon down until Lindbergh is ready for takeoff, and then waves his cap in farewell as the plane banks away to the east. The wonder and excitement of meeting a hero and actually touching an airplane is well portrayed in a conversational, colorful text, which should give today's children some sense of how life has changed since the time of their great-grandparents' youth. The full-page, colored-pencil illustrations are soft, muted, and misty, reflecting the ambiance of a moist Mississippi springtime and the dreamy magic of a young boy's experience, yet have a feeling of melancholy.?Patricia Pearl Dole, formerly at First Presbyterian School, Martinsville, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.