Beth Anderson, Children's Writer

Author-illustrator Jonathan Roth found a unique and fascinating object to take a reader on a special journey through time. But ALMOST UNDERWEAR: HOW A PIECE OF CLOTH TRAVELED FROM KITTY HAWK TO THE MOON AND MARS has more than a piece of cloth tying history together, Jonathan found a special emotional element to pull through the story, too.

GIVEAWAY! Jonathan is offering a copy of ALMOST UNDERWEAR to one randomly chosen person who comments below.

Congratulations to Kim Parfitt, the winner of STOPPING BY JUNGLE ON A SNOWY EVENING from illustrator Julie Rowan-Zoch.

The Inspiring Fabric of Community…and Underwear!

by Jonathan Roth

February of 2021 was a strange time. The school district where I teach was still holding classes online. Though Covid vaccines had recently become available, people were still scrambling for them – and we weren’t even certain how well they worked. We also had a plan to reopen school buildings soon, though we weren’t certain how well that would work either.

On February 18, an online extracurricular club I was leading – “Astro Club” – had a moment of joy and inspiration. After a 6-month journey over 300 million miles, the fifth rover in history landed on Mars. My students cheered watching the engineers cheer over NASA’s live feed. Launching this mission in the summer of 2020 had been extra challenging, but they had done it.

The rover Perseverance then got to doing its work, and we got back to ours. I doubt I gave it much thought until that April, when NASA made an unexpected announcement: Perseverance had carried a small, 4-pound helicopter to Mars with it. If this experimental drone could take off in the cold, thin Martian atmosphere, it would become the first craft even flown by humans on another planet. Those clever engineers were always up to something!

Then NASA made unexpected announcement number two: Ingenuity, the small helicopter aiming to do big things, had a tiny, old object taped to the underside of one of its cables: a postage-stamp-sized piece of cloth that had been part of the wing of the very first airplane, the 1903 Wright Flyer. 

The moment I read this, I had one of those electrifying light-bulb flashes, and I knew I wanted to write a children’s picture book about this interesting thread of history. It helps that I had some other prior knowledge: as someone who frequents the nearby Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, I had often marveled at another small swatch of the Wright Flyer wing cloth that they have on display: a piece that Neil Armstrong had taken to the Moon!

That’s a lot of mileage for a bit of plain fabric. But what a lens with which to illuminate the greatest milestones of aviation and how they’re literally connected!

I immediately began to dig, and a very interesting line popped up about how the type of cloth the Wright Brothers had used for their Flyer wings had been a kind of unbleached muslin that was most commonly used at that time to sew into “ladies’ undergarments”.

Or: underwear.

There, kids, was the hook.

Fortunately, Ingenuity lifted off for a 39-second first flight on April 19, 2021, and ended up flying 72 total times until early 2024 before a propeller broke. It now sits on the sands of Mars, to what destiny we can only guess.

Shortly after Ingenuity’s last flight, my book ALMOST UNDERWEAR: HOW A PIECE OF CLOTH TRAVELED FROM KITTY HAWK TO THE MOON AND MARS (Christy Ottaviano/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) was released.

It’s a very long, hard process to get any book to take flight, let alone a non-fiction picture book, illustrated in an usual drawing/photo montage style, about a 120-year old piece of muslin.

But I hope it helps kids find inspiration.

Inspiration in the story of a little piece of cloth that could. But also inspiration in the power of working together. Working with your brother to invent the first powered airplane. Working with teams of engineers to fly a helicopter on Mars.

Working with others to develop vaccines. And to get through hard times together.

Neil Armstrong humbly acknowledged that it took 400,00 people to put him on the moon. And the reason he took a piece of old fabric so far was a way to quietly honor those who came before him, upon whose shoulders he stood. 

Indeed, if you pull on the thread of anything – technology, books, your underwear – you’ll find it took multitudes to make it possible.

Don’t forget to leave a comment below for a chance to win a copy of ALMOST UNDERWEAR! (US addresses only, please. Winner announced 12/20/24)

And, if you enjoy a book, please support authors and illustrators by leaving online reviews. 😀

Author bio: Jonathan Roth is an Earth-bound but space loving author-illustrator of fun, STEAM-themed books for kids including the ROVER AND SPECK graphic novel series (Kids Can Press), the BEEP AND BOB chapter book series (Aladdin/S&S) and the true story picture book ALMOST UNDERWEAR: HOW A PIECE OF CLOTH TRAVELED FROM KITTY HAWK TO THE MOON AND MARS (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers). He also teaches art to elementary students in Maryland. 

www.jonathan-roth.com

Instagram: @jonrothbooks