Almost Underwear: How a Piece of Cloth Traveled from Kitty Hawk to the Moon and Mars

The unassuming roll of unbleached muslin for sale in 1903 at a store in Dayton, Ohio, might have been turned into ladies’ underwear. “Not that underwear is bad,” notes Roth (the Rover and Speck series). “It just isn’t destined for greatness.” But the Wright brothers saw something more in it: a “light, flexible, and especially strong” fabric ideal for covering the wings of the world’s first airplane. After sitting in storage and being displayed in a museum, a swatch of this cloth—anthropomorphized with dot eyes and a small, expressive mouth—again and again soars into history as other aviation pioneers carry it as a kind of talisman. It accompanies Neil Armstrong to the moon in 1969 and is affixed to the Ingenuity Mars helicopter, in 2021 making “the very first flight on another planet.” A blend of cartooning and archival photos from NASA and the National Air and Space Museum evokes an informative comic book feel, adding in mechanical detail that’s just right for budding aeronautical gearheads. But it’s the work’s narrative voice, which alternates between droll humor and geeky enthusiasm, that makes this textile yarn a delight from takeoff to landing. An author’s note and instrument glossary conclude. Ages 5–9. Agent: Natalie Lakosil, Irene Goodman Agency. (Aug.)