DragonWings

Captain finished up our read aloud after lunch today. And how appropriate, given the airplane connection in the story of "DragonWings" by Lawrence Yep. This Newbery Award winning tale was new to us, but such an immersion into the city of Chinatown and its immigrants just before and after the San Francisco earthquake.  Moon Shadow, the narrator, is helping his father, Windrider, build a flying machine at the same time as the Wright brothers are. (Good discussions with our sons about Chinese culture, flying, models, and discrimination.) This historical work of fiction is based upon the life of Yue/Feng Ru, a young Chinese immigrant. He created an aircraft factory and built two planes--the first one crashed into his own shop during its test flight, burning everything to the ground. But he built another plane, and it flew for 20 minutes from the Piedmont Hills, as reported by the Associated Press, on Sept. 21, 1909.  Yue returned to China in 1911 with his mechanic, and they are credited with building China's first aeroplane. Yue was killed in a crash in 1912.   (Listen to a wonderful interview with the author, who credits his Jesuit English teacher at Catholic high school for his successful career.)