Author Elizabeth MacLeod lifted the Snapshots: Images of People and Places in History series off the ground with books about Alexander Graham Bell and Lucy Maud Montgomery. Now she turns her well-seasoned pen to the Wright brothers, whose first controlled powered flight occurred on Dec. 17, 1903.

Seventeen short chapters take readers from the brothers’ childhood through their development as aviation pioneers. Although Wilbur and Orville were self-educated, MacLeod emphasizes how their combined ingenuity, ability to observe, determination, and imagination propelled them toward their goals. The author also clearly explains how the Wrights’ invention opened up tremendous growth in aviation.

However, my curiosity was piqued in some places but left unsatisfied. For example, the text says the brothers’ mother was good at “repairing things.” What things, I wondered? An earlier experimenter who had died in a crash “was wrong,” I read. Wrong about what? Such loose ends need tying down.

The timelines at the end of the book are helpful for fact-checking, but the minimal index doesn’t yield information as simple as the brothers’ dates of birth. In fact, I found their birth dates not in the body of the text but, with some difficulty, in a speech balloon coming from a dignified cartoon-like Wilbur.

Engaging illustrations by Barbara Spurll and abundant historic photos surround the text to provide visual focus. Additional information comes from letters and quotes of the Wrights. A Flying Start has it ups and downs, but carries a worthwhile message: that dedication helps dreamers to make incredible achievements.