Up and Away!: How Two Brothers Invented the Hot Air Balloon

Age range 5 & up

More than a century before the Wright Brothers invented their plane, Josephand Etienne Montgolfier sent a flying machine into the skies-a hot-air balloon with three animals in the basket. Go up, up, and away with them on their first, magical journey!
Back in 1782, in Ardeche, France, lived Joseph Montgolfier, a dreamer and an inventor who liked to learn about how everything worked. When one day a gust of wind blew his papers into the fireplace, he noticed that something lifted the pieces into the air-and he realized that heat could make things rise. With the help of his brother, Etienne, he began to experiment … and created a new kind of flying machine: a hot-air balloon! This beautifully illustrated picture book tells the story of how the balloon came to be, King Louis XVI’s visit to see it fly, and the three animals-a rooster, a duck, and a sheep-who became its very first passengers.