Fasten your seatbelts!
Today we’re celebrating the launch of
I Fly: An Airplane’s Fantastic Flight by Kelly Rice Schmitt,
Illus. Jam Dong (Lerner).
About the Book:
Every day, tens of thousands of airplanes crisscross the globe, delivering people and cargo of all sorts―from mail to medicine to dinosaur fossils―exactly where they need to go. From the creators of I Ship, I Fuel, and I Truck— I Fly follows a long-haul commercial airplane as it prepares for takeoff and follow the flight all the way to a safe landing at the destination, on an adventure that will send readers’ imaginations soaring!
About the Author:
Readers may remember Kelly Rice Schmitt from her Book Birthday blog celebrating I SHIP: A Container Ship’s Colossal Journey, her debut picture book. She lives in North Carolina where she writes STEAM children’s literature and advocates for girls in STEM, business, and other fields with gender gaps.
Fun fact: as a child, she started her own greeting card business. (More about that below.)
Let’s ask some questions!
Inspiration
Q 1. What was the inspiration for your story? Did Millbrook give you the topic for each of the books in this series?
KRS: My editors wanted more vehicle books for the On the Move series so I FLY was an obvious choice because it was a different setting than our previous books and allowed for wonderful STEM elements with the science of flight.
Process
Q 2. Was your process the same for I Fly as it was for I Ship, I Fuel, and I Truck?
KRS: I Fly had the main difference of being that an airplane was a vehicle a child reader may ride in themselves, whereas I Ship, I Fuel, and I Truck were not.
This meant we had to create an arc that, while still being beginning to end of journey, did not have anything too scary! I think we ended up getting the balance just right, and I hope readers are excited to take their first or next airplane flight!
Research
Q 3. What was your research like?
KRS: I have worked with experts on the whole On the Move series, and for I Fly, I worked with 2 commercial airline pilots, a male and female, who worked for different major airlines.
My main interviews were with an American Airlines pilot who flies transcontinental flights from the East coast USA to Europe. He sent me videos of his walk around check, and walked me through the key processes pilots run before and during the flight. That helped me understand some of the work other important people like dispatchers, rampers, and air traffic controllers do from the ground to help ensure a safe flight.
He also told me the coolest things he’s ever carried in his cargo holds like fancy cars, time sensitive vaccines, giant heavy machinery parts, and live zoo animals such as chimpanzees.
Both pilots also checked over the art in each iteration of sketches and final art to ensure accuracy. The experts always find details I never would have noticed! I also have a local picture book author friend, Mike Downs, who is also an American Airlines pilot. He vetted my text, especially the spreads showing the mechanics of takeoff and the science of flight. Overall, research is just another example of the teamwork involved in creating a picture book!
Illustration Surprises and Favorites
Q 4. What surprises did your illustrator, Jam Dong, bring to the book—even though you’ve now worked on several books together?
KRS: Jam is always surprising us! One lovely surprise was that she chose to have the main family we follow flying be the truck driver from I Truck and her daughter and mother. (See Boarding time! illustration below.) There are also cameos from I Ship and I Truck too.
Jam also used more watercolor in I Fly than previous books in the On the Move series and the watercolor sky backgrounds are gorgeous!! Look at this water color sky!
Q 5. What’s your favorite spread?
KRS: It’s hard to choose, but I think this one with all the surprising cargo an airplane may be carrying! I did a lot of research on this and gave Jam an extensive list to choose from.
Another favorite spread is the diagram of the airplane. We have one like this in I Truck as well
Kelly’s Greeting Card Business
Q 6. Can you tell us about the greeting card business you had as a kid?
KRS: I loved creating art and fun sayings to make handmade cards. Maybe the beginnings of lyrical writing? My parents never let us buy a greeting card and it was a wonderful creative experience as kids.
An unfinished room in our basement was the “project room” where we could use glitter, paint and all the messy stuff without fear of destroying things. I made business cards and had a slew of neighbors hand me a schedule of events they needed cards for— birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, retirements. They even paid me for supplies. It was so fun. It would be a great gig for kids today with the price of cards lately!
ED Note: I loved making greeting cards –with art and clever sayings– for my relative’s birthdays too. I remember my uncle liked his card so much, he gave me a box full of art suppllies. Maybe this was part of our lyrical beginnings!
Congratulations and Happy Book Birthday to I Fly.
To learn more about Kelly Rice Schmitt,
Check out her website | kellyriceschmitt.com
And follow her on social media:
Instagram krschmittwrites
Pinterest krschmittwrites/kids/
Next up on the blog:
We chat with Joshua Pruett about his debut adult horror novel, Nightmare Burger.
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