Finkelstein, Norman H

Finkelstein, Norman H. Three Across: The Great Transatlantic Air Race of 1927. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press, 2008. 134 p. $17.95. ISBN 978-1-59078-462-4. Ages 9 to 14.

Award-winning author, Norman Finkelstein, has written a superb book about early aviation. He tells the story of the $25,000 prize that was offered to the first pilot who flew between New York to Paris and of the three airplanes who made it. Well, sort of.

Most people have heard of Charles A. Lindbergh who was the first to accomplish this daring and grueling feat in his airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis. Less known are the two other planes that reached Europe: Richard E. Byrd led a team of four in his plane called the America; pilot Clarence Chamberlin and businessman Charles A. Levine reached Germany in the Columbia. Finkelstein chronicles their ordeals and achievements with meticulous details and wonderful quotes. Photos are appropriate (although captions are too large); index, source notes, and bibliography are thorough.

Is Three Across a Jewish book? It is true that that the author is Jewish. It is also true that Charles Levine was Jewish. However, there is a troubling aspect to this book. Although Finkelstein is an admirer of these aviators for their courage and fortitude, they are not upstanding role models for young people. Levine was involved in shady and often illegal business dealings; he disputed contracts; he broke promises. Charles Lindbergh was certainly an American hero, but he was also anti-Semitic and pro-German during the 1930s. And Richard Byrd was so obsessed with testing and preparing his plane that this reader wondered if he would ever get off the ground at all. He did manage to reach Europe, but crash landed off the coast of France.

Three Across is a marginal purchase for Jewish libraries, although it could serve in public libraries to depict a fascinating slice of aviation history.