Take a journey through the creative process that led folk artist Vollis Simpson to create his wonderful and whimsical wind-powered whirligigs and more in this STEAM/STEM picture book.
Vollis Simpson was a man with a curious mind—always eager to know how things worked and how to fix them. Growing up on a farm in North Carolina, he loved to tinker with machines. And when he served in the Army Air Corps during WWII, Vollis kept right on tinkering. His ingenuity allowed him to build things no one would have thought to create from scraps—a washing machine out of airplane parts and a motorcycle out of a bike.
After the war, his passion for metal creations picked up speed—turning into a whirlwind of windmills as far as the eye could see. Luckily, Vollis’s fanciful and colorful windmills have been preserved at a park in Wilson, NC, where visitors can behold his magnificent and towering creations forever whizzing in the air.
Carole Boston Weatherford is an award-winning poet and author of more than a dozen books for children, including A Negro League Scrapbook. She lives in High Point, North Carolina.
View titles by Carole Boston Weatherford
Edwin Fotheringham has illustrated many award-winning picture book biographies, including What To Do About Alice? and Those Rebels, John and Tom. He has also produced art for magazines, including The New Yorker and Ladies’ Home Journal. He lives in Seattle, Washington, with his family and their dog and two cats. Visit edfotheringham.com.
View titles by Edwin Fotheringham
Take a journey through the creative process that led folk artist Vollis Simpson to create his wonderful and whimsical wind-powered whirligigs and more in this STEAM/STEM picture book.
Vollis Simpson was a man with a curious mind—always eager to know how things worked and how to fix them. Growing up on a farm in North Carolina, he loved to tinker with machines. And when he served in the Army Air Corps during WWII, Vollis kept right on tinkering. His ingenuity allowed him to build things no one would have thought to create from scraps—a washing machine out of airplane parts and a motorcycle out of a bike.
After the war, his passion for metal creations picked up speed—turning into a whirlwind of windmills as far as the eye could see. Luckily, Vollis’s fanciful and colorful windmills have been preserved at a park in Wilson, NC, where visitors can behold his magnificent and towering creations forever whizzing in the air.
Author
Carole Boston Weatherford is an award-winning poet and author of more than a dozen books for children, including A Negro League Scrapbook. She lives in High Point, North Carolina.
View titles by Carole Boston Weatherford
Edwin Fotheringham has illustrated many award-winning picture book biographies, including What To Do About Alice? and Those Rebels, John and Tom. He has also produced art for magazines, including The New Yorker and Ladies’ Home Journal. He lives in Seattle, Washington, with his family and their dog and two cats. Visit edfotheringham.com.
View titles by Edwin Fotheringham
