A pretty decent look at the youngest woman to fly solo around the world – from the person herself. Yes, Zara Rutherford left Belgium westbound in August 2021, and got back a few months later, having had to cover two antipodes of some kind (she chose Colombia and Indonesia with her ideal travel destinations in mind), but because the bird she was in could only cover 1700 miles in a hop (only…!) she had to divert regularly to the northern continents, hence flying to Iceland and then Greenland, and from Colombia right back up to Alaska for the trip to Siberia, etc.

It's fair to say this is not just interested in the journey, mind – when we get to Iceland we see the geography of the place, as she has to explain the volcanos that spouted turbulent hot air at her. We see the cockpit layout, the waterproofs and flying gear for crossing the Atlantic, the pioneers acting as inspiration from old. Lots of different subjects come at us, then, in very handy two-page spreads, with a main paragraph in the corner and several other bit-bots of text to read, hopefully in the right order.

And what narrative there is – we certainly hop from place to place – is full of drama. Mexico? That'll be an earthquake. Trying to leave California to the north? Forest fires. Siberia? Being stranded with 800 non-English, and probably non-Belgian speaking, locals. Then a typhoon at the next place, and so it went on. The text is thoroughly readable, as you'd expect from someone now at Stanford and building a public speaking profile on the side, while the visuals do include photographs but rely on the artist's kind of wispy, dreamlike, soft and floaty pastel effects.

The book avoids her privileged upbringing, with generations of aviators in the family, and does annoyingly reduce the motivation to breaking the record, while not discussing what kept her going when so many beats apparently made her hesitant to continue. It has no room for the fact that her baby brother has bested all records since. But this did teach me two things (the colour code for Greenlandic buildings, and "Pan-Pan!"), which is two more than I expected to gain here. And for the target reader, many are the gains, making this an easy four stars.

This is book is marketed as for 7-9 year olds, and while I agree that this is an ideal age bracket, younger and older children can still learn a lot from Zara Rutherford’s detailed journey in this book, and be inspired.
The information is catered to children’s attentions and interests, and it is a well-presented, well-told real-life story.