Jules Older - Snowmobile. Bombardiers Dream Machine

SNOWMOBILE

Bombardiers Dream Machine

Jules Older Illustrated by Michael Lauritano

Text copyright 2012 by Jules Older

Illustrations copyright 2012 by Michael Lauritano

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Charlesbridge and colophon are registered trademarks of Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.

Published by Charlesbridge

85 Main Street

Watertown, MA 02472

(617) 926-0329

www.charlesbridge.com

Jules Older gives 10% of his profits from his kids books to people who help kids. This time the money goes to Water.org, which brings clean, safe drinking water to some of the poorest kids on Earth.

Check em out for yourself at www.water.org.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Older, Jules.

Snowmobile : Bombardiers dream machine / Jules Older.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-60734-530-5

1. SnowmobilingJuvenile literature. 2. SnowmobilesJuvenile literature. I. Title.

GV850.5.O54 2012

796.94dc22

2011000810

Illustrations done in Sumi ink and grease pencil on Bristol board

Display type and text type set in Coldsmith and Adobe Garamond Pro

Color separations by Jade Productions

Printed and bound September 2011 by Jade Productions in Heyuan, Guangdong, China

Production supervision by Brian G. Walker

Designed by Diane M. Earley

To our growing family

The Originals: Effin, Amber, and Willow

The Newbies: Leroy, Max, Ben, and Asher

J. O.

For my parents, who have always supported my ambitious dreams, however uncommon or impractical

M. L.

Merci Plenti

A lot of kind people, many of them from Quebec, helped keep Snowmobile real. Here are the kindest of all Patrick Leith and Anne-Marie Fleet for help with All Things French; Brian Puddington for the feel of old Montreal; the Bombardier family and the J. Armand Bombardier Museum for all kinds of details about the life of Joseph-Armand and the invention of the Ski-Doo snowmobile; Effin Older for home editing, proofreading, encouragement, and reality checking. Reality checking? That is the dumbest sentence in the history of the English language.; and most especially, my longtime friend and editor at Charlesbridge, Randi Rivers. Randi thought big when I thought small, thought accurate when I thought lazy, and actually found a way to describe what difference a cog makes that didnt put readers to sleep.

Photo Credits

Ski-Doo is a registered trademark of Bombardier Recreational Products, Inc. (BRP) and its affiliates.

Photographs copyright J. Armand Bombardier Museum, p. iv, .

Photographs copyright 2010 Bombardier Recreational Products, Inc. (BRP), p.. All rights reserved.

Joseph-Armand Bombardiers first patent, issued in 1937, for his sprocket wheel/track system.

Yvonne put her arms around

him and kissed him tenderly.

You invent things, mon cher.

Ours is not the only child who

cannot get to a hospital in winter.

Now stop pacing and go invent

something that will go on snow.

Cold. Night. Snow. And death hangs in the air.

Downstairs, Joseph-Armand Bombardier paced. And paced.

Upstairs, Yvon, his two-year-old son, lay hot with fever. Beside his crib sat the boys mother, Yvonne. Her sisters huddled around her and the crib. They took turns wiping Yvons forehead with cool cloths.

Theyd all been there for hours, yet Yvon was no better. If anything, he was worse.

As time passed Yvons fever grew hotter. His cries were now sad whimpers. His color was slowly fading from fevered red to pale whitethe same color as the Quebec snow that blanketed the house, the barn, the village.

Yvonne sighed. I must get more water. The other women nodded. They knew she needed a break more than the water bowl needed refreshing. Go, Yvonne. Well watch over Yvon.

Yvonne paused halfway down the wooden staircase. She held back a sob.

There in the parlor Joseph-Armand paced the floor, just as he had when shed last refilled the water bowl an hour before, and the hours before that. Only now he muttered, If only we could get him to a hospital. If only we could get him to a hospital.

Yvonne descended the last of the stairs, set the bowl on the pine washstand, and lightly touched her husbands arm. Her touch stopped his pacing. Yvonne! The snow is too deep. I cant I

I know, Joseph-Armand. You cant get Yvon to the hospital, just as I cant get his fever down. Thats simply the way it is. Yvonne wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her blouse. She steadied herself with a deep breath. If it is Gods will, Joseph-Armand, then

Joseph-Armand shook loose from her touch. Non! Non, Yvonne!

She pulled back, shocked by his fierce reaction.

Joseph-Armand, I was just

Now it was Joseph-Armand who sighed. I know, I know. You are a good wife, Yvonne. And a good Catholic woman. I try to be a good Catholic, too.

He inhaled deeply. The ways of God are mysterious, but there is one thing I know for certain: God did not intend for our child to die because weno, because Icannot figure out how to do something as simple as drive through snow.

Joseph-Armand, stop this

No, Yvonne. This is not Gods will. This is my failure.

Her eyes filled with tears, and Yvonne once again took Joseph-Armands arm. Dear husband, you may not have discovered how to drive over snow, but neither has anyone else in Quebec. Nor in Canada. Nor in the entire world. So please, stop blaming yourself. Get back to what you do best, while I do the same.

Joseph-Armand attempted a smile. My dear Yvonne, you are the best mother in the world. But right now I cannot think of a single thing that I can do.

Yvonne put her arms around him and kissed him tenderly. You invent things, mon cher. Ours is not the only child who cannot get to a hospital in winter. Now stop pacing and go invent something that will go on snow.

L ong before he was a father, Joseph-Armand Bombardier had two passions. The first was motors.

Joseph-Armand was born in the country village of Valcourt in the Canadian province of Quebec in 1907. At that time the motorwhen used to propel a wheeled vehiclewas as new and exciting as iPads and iPhone apps are today. The first patent for an automobile was granted in 1886 in Germany, but it wasnt until 1901 that a man named Ransom Olds in the United States started mass-producing carshe called them Oldsmobiles.

And it was not until 1914 (when Joseph-Armand was seven years old) that Henry Ford created an assembly line that could produce an affordable car, the Model T.