Let’s Fly: Barrington Irving’s Record-Breaking Flight Around the World

K-Gr 3–In this autobiographical picture book, Irving with Stiefel describes his journey to become the youngest person and first Black man to fly solo around the world. He started life in Jamaica, where he helped his uncle fix cars, and grew up in Florida, where criticism and challenges strengthened his personal ambitions towards achievement. In high school, he met a Black pilot who mentored him, bought him his first flying lessons, and convinced him to develop his dream of flying and achieve his dreams through hard work, practice, and passion. His mentor, Captain Robinson, also challenged him to pay it forward to other young flight enthusiasts. The story includes a map charting Irving’s journey across the globe and conveys some of the struggles and challenges that come with long stretches of time in a cockpit in all kinds of weather and with no stopping for restroom breaks. The energetic illustrations effectively convey the narrator’s personal drive, ambitions, achievements, the wonders of flight, and diagrams of cockpit flight controls as well as parts of a plane and engine. The story concludes with a helpful time line, fab facts, quotes from Irving, and further reading.