Lighter than Air: Sophie Blanchard, the First Woman Pilot

When Sophie was a little girl in 1783, she heard about the first men who flew in a hot air balloon. She wished she could fly like them. When she was older, she met Jean-Pierre Blanchard, who was a famous daredevil balloonist. They got married, and he taught Sophie to how to fly. After Jean-Pierre died, Sophie would do shows on her own, flying above the crowds. She would become the first woman pilot.

Lighter than Air: Sophie Blanchard, the First Woman Pilot is a fantastic book. I love reading books about women in history who were the first women to do something. It is because of them that women today can do anything they dream. I didn’t know that it was over 200 years ago that the first woman learned to fly in a hot air balloon. I think that Sophie Blanchard must have been very brave to fly a hot air balloon in the 1800s because they did not have the same technology as today. The illustrations helped show what it looked like in the 1800s and what the first hot air balloons looked like. I would recommend this book to other kids who want to learn about women in history.