Fly+Girl

**FlyGirl** //by Sherri Smith//

 * Description:** When America enters World War II, the Army creates the Women's Air Force Service Pilots. Ida Mae Jones, a young African-American woman, suddenly sees a way to fly as well as do something to help her brother stationed in the Pacific.

//Source: Borders.com//

She is black in an America where racism holds sway, and a competent pilot in an America in which she is denied her license because she is a woman. Smith explores these two significant topics and does a wonderful job of melding the two themes in one novel. Ida Mae is a likable character who is torn by the need to pass for white and fake a license in order to fulfill her dream. Readers learn a great deal about what it must have been like to be African American in the South during this period, as well as about the Women Airforce Service Pilots, WASP, a civilian group that performed jobs that freed male pilots for other things. The women's close friendships and the danger, excitement, and tragedy of their experience create a thrilling, but little-known story that begs to be told. The book is at once informative and entertaining. In the end, readers are left to wonder what Ida Mae Jones will do with the rest of her life. //--Carol Jones Collins, Columbia High School, Maplewood, NJ//
 * Review:**

//Source: From School Library Journal on Amazon.com//