Title: Frightful Flight
Author: Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles
Type: Non-Fiction
Page Count: 208
Rating: 4/5
I’m pretty sure that this is the first Horrible Science book that I’ve read, but I did love the Horrible Histories books when I was a kid and so I knew roughly what to expect. What’s cool here is that in many ways, this tells the history of science, and so it brings the two subjects together instead of them clashing and contrasting.
This book basically investigates the origins of powered flight and covers everything from Icarus to the Wright Brothers. Weirdly, aviation seems to have been constantly revolutionised by teams of brothers, to the point at which it’s almost comical. But not quite, because they just don’t hit the same tone as Deary did.
Still, I found myself enjoying it much more than I expected to, and because it’s a book for children, I could also whizz through it too, like a Concorde or something. And when it comes to whether or not I’d recommend it, I’d have to say yes. In fact, there’s a lot to enjoy here as an adult, and it works out as a decent introduction to the science behind flight.
