Flygirl
Smith, Sherri L., 2009.
Flygirl.
New York: GP Putnam & Sons.
256 pages, hardcover.
$16.99
ISBN 9780399247095.
Rating: 4.5/5.0 stars
Plot Summary
Ida Mae Jones is an 18-year-old black woman living in New Orleans. She feels most with the spirit of her dad when she is in the air, and has dreamed of being a pilot her entire life. She’s working hard as a maid so that she can go to Chicago and get her pilot’s license, because even though she passed her test in Tuskegee the licensed pilot refused to give a woman a pilot’s license.
Ida Mae’s focus changes when she learns that Japan has attacked Pearl Harbor, and the United States is going to war. Ida Mae’s big brother Thomas enlists in a Negro unit and becomes a field medic in the South Pacific.
A year and a half after the start of the war, Ida Mae is still cleaning houses even more than before to keep her promise to Thomas to take care of their family. She assists with volunteer efforts, still dreaming of becoming a pilot when she discovers a newspaper article about WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots), tasked with delivering planes from the factory to the military. The only catch: WASP doesn’t take Negro women. Ida Mae has light skin, light enough to pass for white. Now, all she has to do is lie.
Critical Evaluation
Smith’s authentic writing style and voice establish her credibility with readers, making this an accurate and enjoyable read. Her depth of historic details really places the book in that time period and offers readers new insights from the perspective of a black woman – a rare find in traditional history books.
Readers can appreciate the way that Smith tackles two major issues head-on: racism and gender discrimination. She develops her characters, especially Ida Mae, so that readers to see first hand the discrimination she experiences matter-of-factly, sometimes sharing her inner thoughts on the issue and ways she can find a way around some of the bias’ that are holding her back from her dreams.
Smith’s use of real words instead of slang and dialect of non-words or half-words, just as Stockett did with both The Help, reads so much more realistic.
And the inner turmoil Smith forces Ida Mae face to as she slides between the world of being a black girl and white woman weighs heavy is so believable and helps the readers see her true nature.
Reader’s Annotation
Ida Mae Jones dreams of flying, to be a pilot, and helping to support her brother who is stationed in the Pacific. As an 18-year-old black woman in the early 1940’s she comes to realize that being both black and a woman will keep her from her dream – unless – she takes advantage of her lighter brown skin and pretends to be white in order to get a license that would allow her into the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program.
Information About the Author
Sherri L. Smith grew up between Chicago, Staten Island, update New York and DC. When her parents divorced, she and her family moved back to Chicago. She attended college in New York City, graduate school in San Francisco and then headed to LA to work in the film industry, where she still resides and is currently writing her next novel.
Sherri has worked in animation, on a Tim Burton film, and for Disney animation creating animated home movie division, before landing a job working at Bongo Comics, home to the print-version of The Simpsons.
(Smith, 2011).
Genre
Fiction: History – North America 20th century
Read-Alikes
Stormwitch by Susan Vaught
Curriculum Ties
Booktalking Ideas
1) passion to fly – born to it at any cost
2) scene where Ida Mae begins to struggle with her secret about not being ‘white’
Book Trailer Links
Book Trailer by Reader
Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 6 - 10 / Age 12 and up
Challenge Issues
gender discrimination, racial prejudice, lying, impersonation, dangerous missions, WWII
First, I would share some of the recommendations used as part of the selection process, including reviews from resources as noted below. Next, I would point out the value in allowing these types of materials to be optional reading as teens grow ever closer to adulthood and making their own decisions. Finally, following our school district’s policy #KEC, after explaining that our school district’s philosophy is that no parent or group of parents has the right to determine the reading matter for children other than their own, I would refer the parent or community member to the building principal, so that he/she can file a written complaint to begin the process of review.
Awards
ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 2010
Capitol Choices Noteworthy Books for Children, 2010
Kansas State Reading Circle Catalog Selection, 2010
Washington Post Best Kid’s Books of the Year, 2010
Amelia Bloomer Project, 2010
South Carolina Book Award Nominee, 2010-11
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books, 2009
Indie Next List Pick for Teen Readers, 2009
Booklist Magazine cover, April 15, 2009
Why Title Included & Selection Tools
Flygirl is included in this collection because it offers a fresh perspective on war, and how women were able to contribute to the war efforts even if it went largely unnoticed. I also found the premise of hiding one’s true self to reach a dream, only to realize what’s truly important in life may not be that dream after all, to be a fascinating one worthy of sharing with teens.
School Library Journal, Publisher's Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, Horn Book, Washington Post
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