Clean Sweep

Frank Zamboni's
Ice Machine

Tundra Books
(published 1.5.2016) 32 pages 

A True Tale
with A Cherry On Top 

A uthor: Monica Kulling
      and Illustrator: Renne Benoit

C haracter: Frank Zamboni

O verview from the jacket flap: 

    "In 1940, Frank Zamboni, along with his brother and cousin, opened their own skating rink in California. Their biggest frustration was the time it took the crew to resurface the ice - up to an hour and a half! Skaters grew impatient with the wait. Could Frank turn a ninety-minute job for five men into a ten-minute task for only one?
     Working in the shed behind his ice rink, Frank drew designs and built models of machines he hoped would do the job. Frank worked on his invention for nine years, making each model better than the one before. Finally, in 1949, Frank tested the Model A and it did exactly what he wanted it to - it gave ice a smooth finish in a fraction of the time. The Zamboni ice resurfacer had arrived, and ice rinks haven't been the same since."
     
T antalizing taste: 

   "Frank labored in a workshop behind Iceland. Sometimes folks stopped to ask what he was doing. When Frank told them, they often offered advice, such as 'It can't be done,' or 'Sounds crazy to me.'
    So Frank dug in his heels and tried harder.
     But the Second World War came along and put a stop to Frank's work.
     When the war ended, Frank was able to buy military parts, like an engine and axles, cheaply. He built his ice-resurfacing machine on the chassis, or base frame, of a Jeep...
     Over the years, Frank would build many models, each one an improvement on the last...
     In 1951, Sonja Henie, Norway's figure-skating superstar, bought two Zamboni ice-resurfacing machines. Henie had won gold medals three times in a row at the Olympics. Now she was making movies and performing ice shows.
     Frank painted Henie's machines fire-engine red."

and something more: The last page of CLEAN SWEEP features fun facts about the Zamboni machine, including ...  
     "The machine can remove up to 60 cubic feet of ice in one pass. That's enough shavings to make 3,661 snow cones.
     In 1960, it appeared for the first time at the Olympic Winter Games.
     In 2001, a Zamboni machine, with a top speed of nine miles an hour, was driven across Canada, from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Victoria, British Columbia, a trip that took four months.
     Zamboni machines are on every continent except Antarctica."

Fearless Flyer

Ruth Law and 
Her Flying Machine

Calkins Creek
(published 3.1.2016) 40 pages 

A True Tale
with A Cherry On Top 

A uthor: Heather Lang
      and Illustrator: Raul Colon

C haracter: Ruth Law

O verview from the jacket flap: 

    "Before 1916, no pilot had attempted to fly from Chicago to New York City in one day. 
     No pilot would think of making the trip with an old flying machine and an out-of-date engine.
     And if the pilot was a woman? 
     Impossible!
     So the experts said.
     But they didn't know Ruth Law.
     On a windy November morning, she revved her plane's engine and took off on that impossible cross-county flight.
     What Ruth Law did next amazed America."

T antalizing taste: 

   "Slowly she gained altitude.
    As quickly as the wind had gusted, it vanished. Would she have enough gasoline?
    Ruth held onto the left and right levers at all times. One wrong move would send her tumbling from the sky.Holding the right lever with her knees, she turned the knobs on the map box, strapped to her leg. 
    I had a tremendous feeling of freedom, of exhilaration, of power. I was steering my own course by a little six-inch map." 

and something more: The Author's Note of Fearless Flyer explains that "Ruth never let barriers set by society hold her back...When Orville Wright refused to teach her to fly, she found another instructor. Ruth took flying seriously... Ruth believed the key to her success was her mechanical knowledge. She spent many hours learning her plane - the engine, the nuts and bolts, the wires. She whittled struts and grinded valves until her hands blistered."  
     The book begins with this quote:  "When I was a little girl, I used to dream of flying, not with terror ... but with wonder and delight. I would be a swallow flying south, or an eagle swooping down from the clouds, and then, all of a sudden, I'd wake up, just a little girl ready to cry because she had no wings." And then she gained her wings, by persevering to become a pilot!