Overview
The author of Flying Free: America's First Black Aviators ( C. 1992) turns his focus here to Bessie Coleman, the first African American woman to obtain a pilot's license. Bessie Coleman saved her tips as a manicurist on Chicago's South Side in order to scrape together the money for pilot training in France, where prejudice against women and blacks was not as widespread. Obtaining her license in 1921, Bessie was soon making exhibition flights in the U.S. But before she could realize her dream of starting a school for black aviators, Bessie died tragically in a plane crash in 1926. Readers will be inspired by this courageous woman's life story.Presents the story of Bessie Coleman, an American, who in 1920 traveled to France to become the first black woman to earn a pilot's license.
Editorials
School Library Journal
Gr 5-8Another biography of the first African American woman to fly an airplane, this one compares favorably with Lillian M. Fisher's Brave Bessie (Hendrick Long, 1995). Both titles will be useful for research and recreational reading; they cover essential facts about the woman's early life, education, and introduction to flying, and are written in a lively manner. Fisher's style is less scholarly and objective as evidenced in her frequent use of exclamation points, and Hart's bibliography is more impressive. Students unfamiliar with Coleman will probably be more attracted to Up in the Air because of its quality paper, larger print, and inviting chapter titles. Also, many of the same photo-reproductions appear in both books, but the pictures in Hart's title are markedly larger, clearer, and better positioned on the pages. But Brave Bessie should not be discounted as it includes information about the aviatrix's life in France as well as some interesting facts about World War I planes. Both books feature the same cover photo.Phyllis Graves, Creekwood Middle School, Kingwood, TXKirkus Reviews
A serviceable biography in the Traiblazers series about the brief and incandescent life of Bessie Coleman (18921926), the first black woman to earn a pilot's license.Hart (Flying Free, 1992, not reviewed, etc.) works with limited contemporary sources to reconstruct the astonishing career of Coleman. She grew up in Waxahachie, Texas, where she somehow conceived of and maintained a passion for flight. In Chicago, she found a patron who financed a trip to France in 1921; there she earned her pilot's license. Returning to the US, Coleman scrambled for funds to continue training and to buy her own plane, both hindered and heartened by the predictable public response to a black female flyer. She died in a crash in an old Jenny—the only plane she could afford. Hart is sentimental and didactic in depicting the complexities of Coleman's life and the depth of her obsession with flying. Hers is a fabulous story, however, and ought to be told and retold.