Press Releases
| For Immediate Release July 1, 2003 |
Contact: Elisabeth Irwin (202) 277-2034 |
Book on Wright Brothers’ First Flight Wins
First James Madison $10,000 Award.
WASHINGTON, DC -- Lynne Cheney announced today that First to Fly: How Wilbur & Orville Wright Invented the Airplane would receive the first annual James Madison Book Award. Author Peter Busby and illustrator David Craig were presented the $10,000 prize by Mrs. Cheney while standing in the shadow of the original Wright brothers 1903 Flyer at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. Elementary school students from the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington came to hear the author talk about his book and see the plane that first flew on December 17, 1903.
Mrs. Cheney launched this yearly award in April through a charitable fund she established with $100,000 in proceeds from her children’s book, America: A Patriotic Primer. An annual award of $10,000 is presented to the book that best represents excellence in bringing knowledge and understanding of American history to children ages five to fourteen. First to Fly, a 32-page nonfiction book for elementary students and their families, is the 2003 award winner.
“This book is as full of energy as the Wright brothers themselves,” said Mrs. Cheney. “Since this year is the 100th anniversary of their flight, this inspired and accurate account of their persistence and ingenuity will be especially welcome.”
Published by Crown Books for Young Readers, a division of Random House Children’s Books, First to Fly recreates the story of the Wright brothers from their earliest days to the time they were hailed as “the first heroes of the new century.” Original paintings, period Photographs and detailed diagrams accompany the text.
The James Madison Book Award Selection Committee chose First to Fly from hundreds of submissions received from publishers for books copyrighted in 2002. The Selection Committee also named three exceptional children's books as "Honor Books." They are (in no particular order): Inventing the Future: A Photobiography of Thomas Alva Edison (author: Marfé Ferguson Delano, publisher: National Geographic Society); Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story about Brain Science (author: John Fleischman, publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co.); and When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson, The Voice of a Century (author: Pam Muñoz Ryan, illustrator: Brian Selznick, publisher: Scholastic Press).
First to Fly author Peter Busby is a former teacher and the author of two novels. First to Fly is his first book for children. Busby resides with his wife and two children in Vancouver, British Columbia. David Craig’s paintings have illustrated many books, posters, plates and coins. His credits include the dramatic illustrations in the children’s book, Attack on Pearl Harbor (2001, Hyperion Books for Children).
The James Madison Book Award Selection Committee is comprised of members of the sitting Advisory Council, a 38-member group made up of scholars, teachers, authors, parents and grandparents. The 2003 Selection Committee members were Lynne Cheney, Celeste Colgan of Denver, CO; Phyllis Hunter of Sugarland, TX; Katherine Kersten of Edina, Minnesota; and Anne Neal of Washington, DC. Mrs. Colgan chaired the committee.
"This committee was impressed with the way that this book both informed and inspired," said Mrs. Colgan. “Children will want to read it, and when they do, they will have a better understanding of an American technological achievement that revolutionized the world.”
The James Madison Book Award Fund is a separate fund of the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, a Wyoming 501(c)(3) public foundation. Additional information about the James Madison Book Award Fund is available at www.jamesmadisonbookaward.org.
Lynne Cheney is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. She is author or co-author of six books, including America: A Patriotic Primer, an alphabet book of the principles on which our nation was founded. She is married to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Learn more about the 2003 Award Winner.