Behold, the story of Sophie Blanchard, an extraordinary woman who is largely forgotten despite her claim to being the first female pilot in history.

In eighteenth-century France, "balloonomania" has gripped the nation, but all the pioneering aeronauts are men. The job of breaking that barrier falls to a most unlikely figure: a shy girl from a seaside village who is entirely devoted to her dream of flight. 

An although she isn't the first woman to ascend in a balloon or the first woman to accompany an aeronaut on a trip, she is—even better—the first woman to climb into the clouds and steer her own course.

From the dust jacket