President Franklin Roosevelt declared in 1939 that August 19, Orville Wright’s birthday, would be National Aviation Day – an annual occasion to celebrate the importance of aviation. So, today I’m featuring my favorite book about aviation and imagination and the cure for summer (or autumn) boredom—if you can be flexible enough as a parent to withstand the mess.

Peter Spier’s Bored–Nothing to Do is a Picture Book Preschool selection, and it’s one of the best books in the entire list. Two boys build an airplane out of junk found around the house. Then, they have to un-build it and put everything back. That’s the entire plot of the book. And the dialog is sparse, just the two boys brainstorming in brief phrases about how to build their airplane with a few comments from their parents at the beginning and the end of the book. (“Go do something. I was never bored at your age.” “Put it all back where it belongs.”)

Nevertheless, this is a book to read and pore over and examine and laugh with again and again and again. Spier’s illustrations are detailed and delightful. Look at each picture carefully List together all of the materials that boys use to build their airplane. Ask questions: what do you need to build an airplane? What did the Wright brothers use to build their first airplane? What makes it fly? Would an airplane like the one in the book really fly? How does the plane land safely?

I don’t really know enough about aeronautics and airplanes to answer most of the questions that the book raises, but I do know that as a springboard to imagination Bored–Nothing to Do is top flight. Maybe your children will want to research the first airplanes and the men who flew them after reading this story. Or maybe they will make and fly some paper airplanes. Or maybe they will want to try to build their own really, truly flying machine. (Guard the bedsheets and fence posts!)

Bored–Nothing to Do is out of print, fairly inexpensive as a used paperback, a bit expensive in used hardcover. If you find a copy at the library book sale or the thrift store, grab it. Otherwise, it’s definitely worth the $15 or so that the paperback copies are selling for at present. You will read this one over and over.