Kermit Weeks with Gee Bee Zee

EAA board member Kermit Weeks will present his first children's book, "All of Life is a School" (KWIP Publishing, $19.95) at Author's Corner during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2008. Weeks will be at the Sky Shoppe daily, July 28-August 2, from 1-2:15 p.m. to autograph books for AirVenture visitors.

The book delivers messages to children to reach for the stars, pursue their dreams, and establish goals. Its main aircraft characters, "Gee Bee Zee" and older brother "Jimmy G. Zee", are patterned after historic Gee Bee models in a mythical "Fantasy of Flight" airfield. Also featured is a colorful lineup of expressive vintage aircraft characters from aviation's Golden Age. Project Firefly illustrators Ron Cohee and Robert Stanton - former Disney animators - provide the book's illustrations.

The scene is set at the mythical "Fantasy of Flight" airfield, where many types of airplanes created in the 1920s and '30s live and where older, wiser airplanes help youngsters push the boundaries of flight. The true-life Fantasy of Flight is the aviation-themed attraction open since 1995 in Polk City, Florida, and the only aircraft museum in the world showcasing daily aerial demonstrations for guests. Weeks displays more than 40 vintage airplanes at the attraction, while others in his collection are being restored for flight.

Weeks wrote the book to convey valuable lessons to his daughter, Katie, and to lay a foundation for a new generation theme-park industry based on things in real life. Weeks is owner and creator of the Fantasy of Flight Museum, and has a long history of aviation, dating back to the construction of his first homebuilt aircraft at age 17. He donates his time to EAA by being an active board member and providing the Kermit Weeks Hangar, which is used as EAA's aircraft maintenance and research center.

For more information, visit www.AirVenture.org/forums. Books may be ordered at www.Shop.EAA.org, or by calling 800-564-6322.