Our Neighbor Is a Strange, Strange Man

by Tres Seymour, Walter Lyon Krudop (Illustrator)

In illustrations and simple text, tells how Melville Murrell invented the first flying machine in 1876.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1999

About the author

Tres Seymour is a picture book writer, illustrator, and ranger at Mammoth Cave National Park and lives with his wife in Park City, Kentucky.

Reviews

[Heather]

A biography told from the point of view of a young boy, filled with colorful illustrations tells the story of Melville Murrell, the first person to actually build a plane. As the story is told from a child's perspective, children can really connect to the book. The illustrations are even from the perspective of the young boy who is telling the story.

This text is an excellent conversation starter regarding judging others and jumping to conclusions. The young boy who tells the story and his whole community have jumped to the conclusion that Mr. Murrell is a strange, strange man, but no one gets to know him or attempt to understand why he does what he does until he amazes everyone with his invention. The text is also an excellent introduction to biographies for younger students and could be built upon by having students create their own biographies about a person of their choice. This text could be used with different mini-lessons for older students. The mini-lessons could focus on ideas, the author's voice, and sentence fluency. This story could also bring up the conversation about differences in history, as many have claimed that the Wright brothers from North Carolina were the first to build and fly a plane. Students could compare and contrast this text and another on the Wright brothers, looking out for differences and similarities in the two situations.

[Matthew]

This is a nice primary biography of the first man to complete a man-powered plane. The writing is simple and basically provides an introduction to the man from the viewpoint of his skeptical child neighbor. All in all, very well done. The illustrations are great and author's note at the end gives further biographical information.

[Cathy]

In illustrations and simple text, tells how Melville Murrell invented the first flying machine in 1876.