Wings for the King

"Wings for the King" by Anne Sroda

This Selection Snapshot is based on a play. A play is written to be acted out for an audience and includes dialogue as well as directions for how to say and do things. Imagine these characters on a stage.

The king was bored. Everywhere he looked, everyone had something to do except him. If he only had wings, he thought, he could travel to distant lands and discover exciting things. He had an idea. He would offer a bag of gold to the person who could bring him a way to fly to new adventures. Word went out that the king wanted wings. In just a few hours, his page came in, followed by a woman carrying a strange contraption. "Your Majesty," the page called after blowing an off-key fanfare, "presenting Tina Applewhite." Tina stepped forward with what appeared to be two fancy kites and bowed low. "These, Your Highness, are your wings," she said. "I, your loyal subject, made them from the very finest balsa wood, silk, and feathers." Tina helped the king strap on the wings. Then the king went to the highest point on his castle. The queen was too nervous to watch. "Be careful!" she said. A moment later, they heard a loud clatter below. The king limped in, broken wings trailing behind. "These wings are worthless!" he declared. "Off to the dungeon!" However, the king was still determined to fly. The page returned shortly, blowing another pitiful fanfare. "Sire, presenting Geraldine F. Kronmiller," he called. Geraldine bowed. "I bring you a proven way to fly," she said. She pulled out a cap with a propeller. "I don't think you should try this," the queen said. "Nonsense!" the king said. "It looks perfectly safe." He put on the cap and went back out to the top of the castle. He twisted the propeller, jumped, and... CRASH! "The cap flies beautifully," the page said admiringly. "It just didn't stay on the king's head." The king limped back in. "The cap went up, but I went down," he said. "Take this scoundrel off to the dungeon!" and Geraldine was led away. The page returned a few minutes later. "Skip the fanfare," the king said. "Sire, presenting Isaac Summerville." Isaac came forward awkwardly, almost dropping his heavy stack of books as he bowed. "Your Highness, permit me to show you the best wings of all." The king thought Isaac was joking. "How do you wear them?" he asked. "You don't," Isaac answered. "You read them. They can take you anywhere you want to go." He handed the king and queen several books apiece. The king looked at his books. "So this is what the pyramids of Egypt look like!" he said. The queen pointed out a place called "Wonderland" and a girl named Alice. The king looked at pictures of China and Africa and all the places he had ever wondered about. He was delighted! "Here is your prize," he said, handing Isaac the bag of gold. "Books really are the best wings of all. I will never be bored again!" And he and the queen kept on reading. "Leonardo's Horse" by Jean Fritz

A biography is the true story of a person's life, written by someone else. The sequence of events, which shows how the person changes, is important for the story.

Leonardo da Vinci was a great artist. But he was more than just an artist. He was an architect, an astronomer, a musician, an engineer, and a philosopher. He questioned everything, and he went in search of answers. Leonardo was truly one of a kind. Leonardo was born in 1452, in the midst of a time called the Renaissance. Renaissance means "rebirth," and that's just what was happening. The culture was being reborn as people became curious about their world and tried new things. He himself tried many new things. He wrote backwards, for instance, so people had to use a mirror to read his writing. He wouldn't eat meat, especially birds—he tried all his life to make a flying machine so he too could fly. He worked in Florence, where he had studied art and made many of his original creations. The ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de'Medici, chose Leonardo to make a silver flute as a gift for the duke of Milan. This gave Leonardo the chance to talk to the duke. The duke wanted a bronze horse, and Leonardo wanted to make it. The duke accepted Leonardo's offer and hired him to make the statue. Leonardo went to Milan at once. The duke kept Leonardo busy with entertaining in the palace, in addition to his work on the statue. Leonardo used all of his spare time to prepare the horse. He went to the stables to watch horses. He looked at other horse statues. He measured and sketched. Finally, he was ready to begin his masterpiece. However, the duke changed his plans. He wanted the statue to be three times larger. Could Leonardo do it? The answer was "yes," and in 1490 Leonardo was hired all over again. He collected 58,000 pounds of tin and copper that would be made into bronze for the statue. Then, in 1493, he fashioned a full-size clay model of the statue. It was twenty-four feet high, three times larger than life. People were astounded. But with all the materials ready and the plans in place, Leonardo just couldn't get started. Time passed. In 1498, the duke was preparing for war with France. He needed metal for cannons, so he took the metal Leonardo had collected. A year later, the French attacked Milan. They used the clay horse for target practice and reduced it to rubble. Leonardo's dream was over. He went on with his inventing and painting, but he became depressed. In spite of all his amazing work, Leonardo felt that he had never achieved the most important thing he set out to do. His rival, Michelangelo, ridiculed him for the unfinished horse. At the end of his life, in 1519, Leonardo was said to have wept for the horse he could never complete. However, Leonardo's dream did not die completely. In 1977, American Charles Dent took up the project. Many people worked with him to produce a huge, bronze statue for the people of Milan. The horse was unveiled on September 10, 1999, in front of cheering crowds. "The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins" by Barbara Kerley

A biography is the true story of a person's life, written by someone else. The actions of the subject combine to give readers a picture of the type of person the subject was.

One day in 1853, Waterhouse Hawkins hurried to his workshop south of London. He had visitors coming, so he couldn't be late. As he walked along the busy streets, he thought about all that had led to this day. As a young boy, Waterhouse had loved to draw and paint animals. More than that, he loved to sculpt them. Now he was working on his biggest project. He was sculpting dinosaurs for Queen Victoria's new art and science museum. Sculpting a dinosaur was a great challenge. Though many dinosaur fossils had been found, there were never enough pieces to make a whole skeleton. So scientists compared the dinosaur bones to those of animals today. They used those comparisons to figure out the size and proportion of dinosaurs. One scientist, Richard Owen, was working with Waterhouse on his models. Together, they would make it possible for people to see what dinosaurs were really like. Waterhouse rushed into his workshop and tidied things up. There was a knock on the door. His guests had arrived! He opened the door, and in walked Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to have a look at his work. The queen was amazed as she looked at the models and listened to Waterhouse. He told the queen that studying the fossils and designing the models was only the beginning. He had to make life-size models and then giant molds. Next, he erected an iron framework, built foundations, and used the molds to make cement casts of the dinosaurs. He told the queen that building his dinosaurs was as difficult as building a house! After impressing the queen, Waterhouse was determined to impress the scientists as well. What better way than to throw a dinner party . . . inside one of his giant dinosaurs! He invited England's famous fathers of the science of paleontology and made everything perfect for the occasion. The guests were delighted! For eight hours on New Year's Eve, the men partied in the iguanodon. They were served lavish food by uniformed footmen and had a wonderful time. They toasted Waterhouse Hawkins and agreed that his dinosaur was a smashing success. He was proud to have made these new friends. As the grand opening of the museum drew near, Waterhouse put the finishing touches on his dinosaurs and moved them to their new home. At a huge ceremony in 1854, Queen Victoria invited everyone to enjoy the wonderful new Crystal Palace museum. Then the crowds started to come. Altogether, forty thousand people came and marveled at the dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins. In 1868, Waterhouse traveled to the United States, where he created the world's first model of a complete dinosaur skeleton. This model amazed the visitors to Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences. He started work on more giant dinosaur sculptures for Central Park in New York City, but vandals destroyed the models in his workshop. The pieces were buried somewhere in Central Park, where they remain today. "Mahalia Jackson" by Julius Lester

Expository nonfiction explains what certain things are and how they came to be. This Snapshot explains a musical form known as the blues and how it came to be.

Everybody gets the blues sometimes. It comes from feeling sadness and heartache. Blues music comes out of this feeling. Though the words are often sad, blues music helps to make people feel better and stronger. Blues music started with slavery. People were treated badly during slave times in the United States, and they continued to have a hard life after slavery ended. The blues may have gotten its start when enslaved people sang about their troubles to ease their troubles. The music and the beat helped both singer and listener to feel just a little better. Mahalia Jackson was a gospel singer, but she knew the blues. She put the blues into church music. Everything she sang had just a touch of blues in it. Though the words she sang were always gospel, blues singers learned from her about what blues music could really be. Mahalia came from New Orleans, where jazz had its start. She was born in 1911. Her father, a preacher, barber, and dock worker, worked hard to take care of his family. Her mother died when she was five, so Mahalia went to live with an aunt. (She often saw her father at his barbershop.) Her aunt, who was very religious, took Mahalia to church every day, and Mahalia grew up loving the music there. She said the people used their whole bodies to make music. That music and rhythm, so expressive and strong, could move her to tears. Church is where Mahalia started singing. She left school after the eighth grade to start working, doing people's laundry. When she was still a teenager, in 1937, she moved with another aunt to Chicago. Chicago, she was told, offered a good life to African Americans, even though it was the Great Depression. In Chicago, Mahalia worked during the day as a maid in hotels. But she joined a church choir and gospel group and kept singing. Her singing was noticed by Thomas A. Dorsey, the father of gospel music. He directed some Chicago gospel choirs and had a lot of connections, and he booked her to sing concerts in out-of-town churches. Mahalia's reputation grew. She released her first record in 1946 and went on to become the world's best-known gospel singer. She was a friend of many famous people, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He asked her to sing before he gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963. Mahalia Jackson died in 1972. In 1976 she was honored with a special posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy awards ceremony. Even now, people still appreciate her work and listen to Mahalia's blues-flavored gospel singing to ease their weary hearts. “Special Effects in Film and Television" by Jake Hamilton

This Snapshot is expository nonfiction. It explains what certain things are and how they came to be.

Special effects (SFX) make movies and television shows seem real. Dinosaurs, massive explosions, armies fighting huge battles—we see them on screen, but they are mostly in our imaginations. How is it done? Let's look at a television show that will be set in the prehistoric world. First, the script and the director describe what they want. Then the SFX team builds a tiny model of the setting. It is about 1 ft (0.3 meter) by 1 ft (0.3 meter). This is a "concept" model that the movie-makers study. Next the SFX team builds a larger, more detailed model. It is called a "prototype." It's twice as large. Now the 2-ft (.6 m)-square setting has trees and bushes, a lake and hills. When the prototype is approved the team begins work on the actual model. The full-size miniature model is 24 ft (7.2 m) by 24 ft (7.2 m). It is made of thick white plastic pieces that have been carved and shaped. They are arranged on wooden platforms so that people can walk underneath. The pieces are carefully cut and numbered. They fit together like a giant puzzle. They will be taken apart and then put together in the television studio. There the reassembled landscape gets hills and valleys, rivers and lakes. All are painted to look real. Miniature trees and bushes and rocks, even live plants, are added. Technicians use a special glue to keep the pieces in place. Finally a technician sprays the entire model to look even more real. A huge painting of the sky is used as background. Other SFX workers have been creating realistic models of early reptiles. These will appear to roam the landscape. They are made from special clay and fiberglass molds. Molded foam latex is then painted and finished to look shiny or rough. These models are hollow. People can get their arms inside and move the animals from below. The television show lets us spend time with dinosaurs in a prehistoric world. Everything looks and sounds real, thanks to the world of special effects.