The Paper Airplane Book

my dear old granddad (god rest his soul) did not spend a lot of time with my family, and his gifts were sometimes a bit off-target, as a result. THIS GIFT WILL STAY ON-TARGET I was just a lil' munchkin, or as a certain childhood favorite of fiction used to say, I was "the littlest end of nothin' sharpened!" Granddad was a physics professor during a time, and in a way, quite brilliant. He somehow ended up with the misfortune of being a teacher (He taught many subjects over the years, and I think that this one was math) of not only instructing a young man known as Theodore Kaczynski (I apologize for what must be atrocious spelling, but it's been a while...) but finding that the boy was, at that point in time, more than lucid enough to instruct the class in his absence should an emergency arise(these changes such as Ted had undergone usually manifest only in late teenage/early adult years with a COMPLETE psychological metamorphosis that seems, to all involved, no where close to being a "180"). We knew (or wondered) of him as "Unabomber". Coincidences aside, Granddad had a remarkable ability to teach kids in a way that did not bother them in the least. When reading books such as this one, a child can learn the properties of quantum/gravimetric physics so comfortably that all they realize is that they are learning how to create, design, and customize paper airplanes for optimal performance according to their own personal tastes and preferences, customizing potential trajectory, distance, air speed velocity, and they even learn a bit of history as well. If I am not mistaken, one of my favorite planes from this book is based on an actual aerial transport of roughly similar proportions! I don't think that I will ever have the privilege of seeing that progenitor of the paper model in question close up and in person, but then, we all have to set certain dreams aside to make room for others at one time or another. By the way, much of the terminology that I've used in this review is far more complicated as a description than that which lies within this book's pages. I could never possibly do it justice, save to say that the best way for a kid to learn is to do so without realizing it. if this can be achieved, then school, homework, science fair projects are...well... a breeze.

I used this book with my 3rd Grade class and found it invaluable. The explanations, diagrams, and experiments were right on their level.