Up & Down The Adventures of John Jeffries, First American to Fly [Hardcover]

The incomparable Don Brown chronicles the ballooning misadventures of John Jeffries, scientist and aviation pioneer.

Swept up by the European ballooning craze of the 1780s, Dr. John Jeffries longed to become the first person to fly across the English Channel. But first he had to outwit a rascally copilot, keep the balloon from bursting, and avoid crashing into the sea. The good doctor's quick-thinking solutions will surprise young readers--and keep them giggling. Orbis Pictus and Sibert Honor winner Don Brown tells this quirky true story with his usual accuracy and heart.This witty picture-book biography describes the adventures of eighteenth-century John Jeffries, an earlydabbler in meteorology and a respected physician who, due to his Loyalist tendencies, found himselfexiled to England after the Revolutionary War. Intrigued by the early hot-air balloon flights of theMontgolfier brothers of France, Jeffries offered to bankroll a British attempt at crossing the EnglishChannel, contingent upon his inclusion as a passenger. The majority of the action concentrates on thisharrowing but eventually successful endeavor, graphic details included (at one point, the two balloonistsrelieved themselves over the side of the gondola to lighten the load). Believed to be the first scientist toconduct aerial research (measuring temperature, humidity, and air pressure), Jeffries’ subsequent fameallowed for his return to America—but no more adventures aloft. The detailed pencil-and-watercolorillustrations add humor, and an epilogue, bibliography, quotation sources, and an author’s note roundthings off. This engaging and somewhat wry account will aptly supplement STEM research assignments.
—Booklist

A daredevil and a naturalist go up in a balloon . . . it sounds like the start of a joke, but in 1785, pioneering balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard and self-exiled American Loyalist John Jeffries attempted and succeeded in the first fligl£6