Flygirl [Hardcover]

Sherri L. Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 22, 2009

Read Sherri L. Smith's posts on the Penguin Blog

Ida Mae Jones dreams of flight. Her daddy was a pilot and being black didn’t stop him from fulfilling his dreams. But her daddy’s gone now, and being a woman, and being black, are two strikes against her.

When America enters the war with Germany and Japan, the Army creates the WASP, the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots—and Ida suddenly sees a way to fly as well as do something significant to help her brother stationed in the Pacific. But even the WASP won’t accept her as a black woman, forcing Ida Mae to make a difficult choice of “passing,” of pretending to be white to be accepted into the program. Hiding one’s racial heritage, denying one’s family, denying one’s self is a heavy burden. And while Ida Mae chases her dream, she must also decide who it is she really wants to be.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Smith (Lucy the Giant) brings a gripping perspective to bear upon a lesser-known piece of America's past: during WWII, the government recruited women pilots to fly non-combat missions, e.g., ferrying planes. Driven by a desire to fly and wanting to help her enlisted brother, Ida Mae decides to pass as white so she can join the program. The author has an expert grasp on her subject, and readers will learn plenty about the Women Airforce Service Pilots, from their impractical uniforms to the dangerous missions they flew without reward. Ida Mae's unique point of view gives her special insight into the often poor treatment of women: when a pilot friend gets frustrated by a stunt they are asked to perform, Ida realizes, Lily's just finding out what I've been living with my whole life. She's never known what it was like to be hobbled by somebody else's rules. Key scenes demonstrate how much Ida has sacrificed by passing, as when her much darker mother visits her on Christmas and, à la Imitation of Life, poses as the family housekeeper. Although this book feels constructed to educate, readers will find the lesson well crafted. Ages 12–up. (Jan.)
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From School Library Journal

Grade 6–10—Readers first meet 18-year-old Ida Mae Jones, a Louisiana girl who longs to be a pilot, in December 1941, on the eve of America's entrance into World War II. She is pretty and smart, but she has two huge strikes against her. 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
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (January 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399247092
• ISBN-13: 978-0399247095
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #763,512 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sherri L. Smith was born in Chicago, Illinois and spent most of her childhood reading books. She currently lives in Los Angeles, where she has worked in movies, animation, comic books and construction. Sherri's first book, Lucy the Giant, was an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults in 2003. The Dutch translation, Lucy XXL (Gottmer, 2005), was awarded an Honorable Mention at the 2005 De Gouden Zoen, or Golden Kiss, Awards for Children's Literature in the Netherlands. Sherri's novel, Sparrow, was chosen as a National Council for the Social Studies/Children's Book Council Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People and is also a 2009 Louisiana Young Readers Choice Award Nominee. Upon the release of Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet in February 2008, Sherri was featured as a spotlight author for The Brown Bookshelf's Black History Month celebration, 28 Days Later. Flygirl, an historical YA novel set during World War II, is her fourth novel. She is currently working on her fifth book.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best YA Novel I Have Ever Had The Pleasure Of Reading, September 13, 2009

By 

Tara (Utah) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Flygirl (Hardcover)

I have so many good things to say about this book, I don't know where to start... First, I loved the heroine, Ida Mae. Ida is a small town farm girl whose father introduced her to crop dusting at an early age. Ida loves to fly and when America enters World War 2, she gets tired of collecting silk stockings and cleaning houses and decides to join the WASP. Despite her amazing flying abilities, the WASP will turn her away simply because she is half black. Ida's desire to fly and aide her brother overseas in the only way she knows how overcomes her fears and she passes herself off as white so that she may do so. Her mother gets upset, her best friend gets upset, but Ida doesn't let them stop her and off she goes Sweetwater, Texas to fly.

On top of getting a firm feel for life at Avenger Field during world war 2 and the flight training and procedures, readers also get a look at what it is like to be black in the 1940s. Ida is always having to worry about her hair curling too much or somebody figuring out her secret because back then, her secret could get her killed. On top of the racial tension is the fact that she is a woman to boot. I doubt anybody had it harder back then. Women in general had it rough, but being a black woman... most of us would not have had Ida's courage.

Also in the story is how Ida deals with conflicting emotions regarding her family in New Orleans (she feels she is denying her own heritage and family, especially when her mom comes to visit and has to act like her maid) and her family in Sweetwater. How would her newfound white friends act if they knew the truth? My only complaint about this novel is we never found that out.

There is also a situation with the loss of a friend. Ida has to deal with her grief as she watches a friend die and her conflicting emotions about the situation as she realizes it could happen to her.

I absolutely loved the courageous flight Ida takes with Lily in a B-29. Great way to end this novel. Readers see how the WASP was literally used and discarded. I feel for all the women that were involved. Yet, this does not stop Ida Mae. Despite the fact that the Army betrays her and her female comrades in the end, Ida Mae still wants to fly, not as a white woman, nor a black woman, but as Ida Mae.

Ms. Smith, I would like to see a sequel to this book. I would like to see Ida Mae go work for Walt and come clean about her heritage. I'd like to see her overcome the 1950s and keep on flying despite all odds. We need more books with strong female heroines, white, black, latina.... Thumbs up, Ms. Smith.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Richie's Picks: FLYGIRL, April 16, 2009

By 

Richie Partington "Richie's Picks" (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flygirl (Hardcover)

"'Yes, indeed.' Audrey salutes me this time. 'Isn't it funny, ladies, how there's always a man at the bottom of everything we do?'"

After reading FLYGIRL, I still have not the slightest desire to learn to fly an airplane. There are just too many problems that can pop up with such complex mechanical things. When something unexpected occurs with my Toyota pickup, I simply pull over and pull out the cell phone and the AAA card. One doesn't have the same luxury with an airplane, as we see all too vividly in FLYGIRL, Sherri L. Smith's high-flying tale of a young, light-skinned, southern woman of color who "passes" for white during World War II so that she can compete for a position flying in the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program. Ida Mae Jones and her fellow women pilots go through months of rigorous training so that they can assume responsibility for military flight tasks on the homefront. The WASP pilots thereby free up the Army's male pilots so that the men can then head into combat overseas in the European and South Pacific theaters.

Ida Mae grew up in her father's crop duster -- after her father blazed his own trail by heading north to Chicago in order to get pilot's training and a license -- and she lives to fly. But now her father is dead in a tractor accident, there is gasoline rationing because of The War, and her big brother, Thomas, has enlisted as a medic. Free as a bird in the air, this young woman is one smart, careful, and damned-near fearless flygirl. Ida Mae's difficulties are, instead, encountered when she is back on the ground:

"Pretending to be white is like holding your stomach in at the lake when the boys walk by. You know they're looking, but you don't want to be seen the way you really are, tummy all soft and babyish, with a too-small chest and behind. So you stand up tall, suck it in, tilt it forward, and try to do the best you can."

I love how Ida Mae offers this comparison with which we can all relate. How many times do we feel the need to pretend we are someone we aren't for the sake of feeling better (or less bad) about ourselves? As we know, such a survival strategy might help in the short run, but what are the long-term psychological effects of being forced to deny or hide our identities because of discrimination? We can only imagine the psychic costs to Ida Mae and countless real life Americans who have had to either hide a piece of themselves or else forego life-changing opportunities. It is for this reason that we evolved for the better, from the "melting pot" philosophy of assimilation that was widely taught during my childhood to the "salad bowl" philosophy of multiculturalism that has been the norm during my children's formative years. It is for this reason that for so many of us of my generation the REAL American Dream is the one that we heard articulated from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial the week before I began third grade:

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

Sherri L. Smith's epilogue to FLYGIRL leaves open a door -- just about the size of an airplane hanger -- for the possibility of a sequel. I, for one, have not begun to get my fill of Ida Mae Jones who, despite being a fictional character (I have to keep reminding myself that, no, she didn't get to vote for Obama last year.), leaves so many important personal issues unresolved when -- with the conclusion of the Second World War -- her story ends all too soon.

What will happen after the story's over between Ida Mae and her mother and between Ida Mae and Jolene (her best friend from back home) when she returns to her family's strawberry farm in Slidell, outside New Orleans? The repercussions of Ida Mae's deciding to pass for white and join the military have shredded her relationships with the two women with whom she has always been closest in life. Given her lofty achievements in the WASP program, can Ida Mae possibly cope with reverting her identity back to that of a young southern woman of color -- with all of the humiliating subservience and dangerous hatred that entails in 1940s Louisiana? Or must she, instead, either totally sever herself from her roots or else try to build an ever-more-complicated web of deceit in order to both maintain relationships with her friends and family while continuing to slip through doors that were otherwise still padlocked, dead bolted, and barricaded against most women -- of any color -- far into my own lifetime?

Fortunately, so much progress has been made since World War II -- both for women and for people of color.

And yet, as of 2009, we still have so far to go. When we look at the numbers, things are still totally unequal at the top: women now hold 17 of 100 U.S. Senate seats, 74 of 435 U.S. House seats, 1 of 9 U.S. Supreme Court seats, and occupy 8 of 50 Governor mansions. But Ida Mae Jones, gutsy, smart, brave, sassy, and determined, is just the kind of young woman to show us how to get it done right.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing story, April 6, 2010

By 

Eclectic Reader (Maryland USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flygirl (Hardcover)

FLYGIRL is, quite simply, remarkable. It succeeds on many levels: as history of a little known aspect of World War II, as insight into being a patriotic black woman who yearns for the white male world of flying, and best of all, as pure, engrossing story.

Sherri L. Smith has clearly done her research in depicting the WASP experience, and she brings Ida Mae and her friends to vivid life. The world Ida Mae inhabits at the beginning of WWII is very limiting for too many people. By the end of the story, it's clear the world has changed. Ida Mae is not going to go back to cleaning houses, and I like to think of her creating a path that will let her fly not as a "colored" girl passing for white, but as simply Ida Mae Jones, pilot.

I noticed that an earlier review by a flying buff criticized the story for not showing pre-flight checks, but the gentleman must not have read carefully. The flight checks are there, and given exactly as much weight as they deserve by showing that the girl pilots know what they're doing.

I look forward to reading more of Sherri L. Smith's book