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"Race to Kitty Hawk" by Edwina Raffa and Annelle Rigsby takes the reader back to the beginning of the last century, when Wilbur and Orville Wright, two bicycle makers from Dayton, Ohio, became the first people to design, build, and successfully fly an airplane.

The story opens in November of 1903. Twelve-year-old Tess Raney and her older sister, Ellen, are riding in the Orphan Train. They, ... More

"Race to Kitty Hawk" by Edwina Raffa and Annelle Rigsby takes the reader back to the beginning of the last century, when Wilbur and Orville Wright, two bicycle makers from Dayton, Ohio, became the first people to design, build, and successfully fly an airplane.

The story opens in November of 1903. Twelve-year-old Tess Raney and her older sister, Ellen, are riding in the Orphan Train. They, along with 30 other orphaned children, are leaving New York City, each looking for a new life and a new family. When the train pulls in at Dayton, Ohio, the Raney girls are fortunate enough to meet Miss Harriet, who runs a local boarding house. As it turns out, the girls' new home is on the same street as the Wright family.

Tess and Ellen settle into life in Dayton. They go to school and help Miss Harriet around the boarding house. Tess, who has a passion for kites, wants to buy materials to make one. To pay for her hobby, she gets a job at the local department store. She and Ellen also spend a good deal of time at the Wright home, where Katharine Wright, sister of Wilbur and Orville, tutors them. One day, while Tess is at the Wrights, Orville makes an unexpected visit from his experiments at Kitty Hawk. He and Tess, kindred spirits, strike up an immediate friendship. He helps Tess with her kite sketches and tells her all that he and his brother plan to accomplish with their flying machine. From that day on, kites, flying machines, and learning from Orville are all Tess thinks about. Life is good and exciting for Tess, save for one thing. She believes that one of the boarders at Miss Harriet's isn't really the good-natured photographer he pretends to be, but a wicked man secretly scheming to foil the Wrights' quest for flight. Putting her life in jeopardy, Tess takes great risks to ruin Hardwell's plans.

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