When Jack Knight takes off in his biplane from North Platte, Nebraska, in 1921, hundreds of people crowd the airstrip. Is Jack transporting a famous passenger? Is he ferrying medicine for a sick child? Nope--Jack has six sacks of mail.

For the past few years, biplanes like Jack's have been flying the mail only during daylight hours. Flying after dark is risky and crashes are too common, so lawmakers decide to cut funding for the US Air Mail Service. Outraged officials and pilots want to prove that flying the mail is best, so they concoct a plan--a coast-to-coast race.

But when a crash, exhaustion, and a snowstorm ground three of the planes, Jack Knight becomes the race's only hope. All he has to do is fly all night long, leaning out of the plane to see, and navigate a blizzard over land he's never covered with an empty fuel tank. Will Jack pull it off and save the Air Mail Service?

Stacy Innerst is a painter, children's book artist, and educator. His books have received a host of starred reviews and have been honored with The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children's Books Award, the SCBWI Golden Kite for Picture Book Illustration as well as several Gold Medals from the Parents' Choice Awards. His recent books for Calkins Creek include SAVING LADY LIBERTY and LINCOLN CLEARS A PATH. Illustrator site: stacyinnerst.com