The Bird Coat

Sitting in a barber’s chair, a child notices a portrait and framed articles on the wall, and asks “Who’s that?” The barber’s explanation takes readers back to an aviation-obsessed Paris “not far from here,” where a tailor named Pierre creates a coat with wings so that he can fly “as the first human bird.” Drawn by his announcement that he’ll sail safely off the top of the Eiffel Tower, a crowd gathers—and watches him fall to his death. “But why didn’t anyone stop Pierre?” the child asks the barber. “Who knows?” is the reply. Inspired by the real-life figure of Franz Reichelt (1878–1912), Kjølstadmyr’s story is dismaying, provocative—and moving. Torseter riffs on the reportorial narrative with fluidly inked sketches that portray Pierre as humanoid with the tusks and spindly trunk of an elephant. But beyond the telling, the creators leave only more unanswered questions: Where is the line between a dream and reality? When does one become complicit in another’s folly? How inscrutable is the human heart? Ages 8–up. (Oct.)