Fly Girl by Sherri L. Smith
While the men and boys were out fighting in the war, the woman and girls stayed home and cooked or cleaned. Some even collected material objects to send off to factories to make more weapons and ammunition. This situation worked for most people but not for Ida Mae Jones. Ever since her dad had taken her up in his old Curtiss JN-4, she wanted to fly. At that moment she fell in love with the sky. One small problem was that she was a girl and girl pilots were looked down on and scorned. Slowly though, that problem was being resolved by independent woman taking a stand. Unfortunately for Ida that was nothing, the problem for her was that she was colored. But then, that shouldn’t even be a problem. Faced with the biggest decision of her life, Ida doesn’t know what to do. Stay at home, embracing her family and the way she is or pursue flying, covering up who she really is, denying her existence as a black woman.
I love historical fiction books and Fly Girl definitely didn’t disappoint me. Ida was so real to me and I found myself completely hooked on her life story and how she managed to fly as one of the first colored woman. She was willing to sacrifice everything she had and knew to fly and to make a difference. Not a lot of people are willing to do that anymore.
2 comments:
Hm. That looks really good, though historical fiction isn't always my favorite... but the cover is pretty :)
How are you liking the year of secret assignments?
This summer I met a 91 year old woman who signed up for flying instruction because they needed more flying instructors to teach flying to would-be pilots in WWII. She had never been in a plane before her first lesson and fell in love with flying instantly. She succeeded in her lessons and instructed future war pilots. She was at the right place at the right time, don't you think?
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