A gorgeous story book for younger children with themes of perseverance and learning not to give up, as well as STEM and engineering. Jabari wishes to make a flying machine that can really soar through the air in the garden. Just like many of the best inventions, it doesn’t work properly on the first attempt and a little trial and error is needed to tweak the design. Jabari is disappointed, but with a bit of encouragement from his family to keep on trying, he soon begins to see success.

Young children will be able to relate to the frustration of models and designs not working properly and the challenge of not giving up. Jabari’s father and sister offer fantastic encouragement and we also see familiar family dynamics as Jabari is not sure that he wants to include his sister in his game, but the teamwork pays off in the end. Jabari becomes a good role model when he adapts the attitude to keep trying to reach his goal, and readers celebrate with him when his success is the fruit of his tenacity.

The book could inspire some STEM-themed projects, research into some of the scientific figures mentioned to simply discussions on the topic of perseverance.