Take a Flight

Here is a book which would be a helpful read when children travel by plane and also a worthy addition to the school library shelf on transport. It is structured enough to be a good introduction to non-narrative text too. The contents page links with the double spread headings taking the reader through each stage of a flight from check in to collecting luggage from the moving carousel on arrival.

Considerable imagination has been used to decide the most interesting and effective way to present each stage of the journey. We begin with the ‘big shape’: an aerial view of an airport showing runway, terminal, control tower and car park. The cross section showing Meal Time on the aeroplane is a simple but very effective way of revealing the staff working in the galley, the luggage in the hold as well as the passengers receiving their meal trays. Some pictures show the bustle of the airport, for example those of the crowded shops and restaurants in the departure lounge. Others are carefully labelled diagrams of the parts of a plane – cargo, hold, cockpit and engines – and we have the stacking planes waiting their turn to land above the airport with blue lines to indicate the circling motion. And so information is mainly communicated through pictures while the written text is succinct. Question boxes on each spread guide children’s observations and this thoughtfully designed book covers extremely well the things children ask about airports and air travel.