Popular Reading for the 1913 Teenager

Okay, a bit of an anachronism there, since they weren't called teenagers then, and maybe the book was aimed at those a bit younger than the century. But we just added to our list of books and movies about WWI and aviation a book Andy showed us in his collection: Dave Dashaway the Young Aviator by Roy Rockwood. (Rockwood is the pseudonym for a syndicated series like the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books.)

Andy pointed out that the book was published in 1913, so the picture on the cover shows an airship not so different from what had flown at Kitty Hawk 10 years previously. But five years later, an American boy who had read the book in 1913 could have been flying over France in a craft not so different from what would be flown at the start of the Second World War!

Not surprisingly, Amazon doesn't currently show a physical edition of this book. But with Kindle you can read the same edition as in the Parks family collection, and see what boys of the WWI generation were reading about aviation. Look through the other books and movies on our list, and keep checking back - we've asked Andy for his comments on recent books about the Lafayette Escadrille....