TINY JUMPER

A peek at the woman known as the “First Lady of Parachuting.”

“Georgia Ann Thompson weighed only three pounds at birth on April 8th, 1893.” These words are accompanied by a pleasing, colorful portrait of three reverent people surrounding a woman cradling a baby. The word tiny floats above in a word balloon. Readers learn that the nickname “stuck.” Dahl goes on to detail Tiny’s life of child labor from the age of 6, culminating with Tiny atop a tree at sunset, envisioning herself “rising up” from a life of poverty. By 1907, she had convinced parachutist Charles Broadwick to teach her to parachute from hot air balloons as part of his traveling act. (Broadwick adopted her.) Her compromise: At age 15, she endured the embarrassment of being dressed as a baby doll and labeled the “Doll Girl.” After winning accolades as “the most daring parachutist,” Tiny became the first woman to parachute from an airplane and then the first person to deliberately free fall from a parachute. The latter was a dramatic, happy accident that both saved her life and inspired further development of rip cords and of Charles Broadwick’s pack parachute invention. Excellent choices of quotations from the brave aeronaut are nicely interspaced with thoughtful, understated text and complementary art.

A well-executed biography of an extraordinary woman.