Fly, Bessie, Fly

by Lynn Joseph, Yvonne Buchanan (Illustrator)

"Far away, far away,
Up past the clouds.
High away, fly away,
And never come down."

More than anything, Bessie Coleman wants to fly. As a small child working in a Waxahachie, Texas, cotton field, she likes to imagine she's a bird, getting ready to spread her wings and fly away. Then, when Bessie learns about the black fighter pilots of World War I, she gets the idea that maybe she really can fly. But no one in the United States will teach her how to fly a plane because she's black and a woman. So Bessie goes to France, where she becomes the first black woman in the world to earn a pilot's license -- and where she finally has the chance to soar with the birds.

In lyrical prose, Lynn Joseph tells the inspirational true story of aviator Bessie Coleman. Yvonne Buchanan's buoyant watercolor paintings remind us that sometimes even seemingly unattainable dreams are within our reach.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Picture Books, History

32 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1998

About the author

Lynn Joseph's adventure travel, island hopping, and lifelong wandering have a purpose. And it's not just to find the best crepes, gelato, and champagne! She swears! Lynn writes about the places she falls in love with. She's discovered in her travels that everyone is looking for a romance and a happy ending! Especially romance authors! Her USA home base is the charming Ferry Village in South Portland, Maine, and her international home base is the Caribbean Island of Tobago, where she’s known as the Mermaid Queen. Lynn believes in protagonists of color traveling and changing the world. And falling in love, of course! She almost always finds a way to work in crepes, gelato, or champagne as part of the story (to support the research!) If you're ready for some sweet romance, join Lynn on her journey of love, food, and romantic destinations (not necessarily in that order).

Reviews

[Elizabeth]

This book doesn't shy away from the difficulties of being Black in the U.S. It starts in Texas in 1901 where Bessie and her family are working in cotton fields, and includes mention that "Ma can't be too mad at me, Bessie decides. I'm the one who can do the figuring so that we get every penny we earn for every pound of cotton," and, "Bessie loves the lessons in school, but every year the schools for black children are closed until all the cotton is harvested. The schools for white children open on time, as always." And even just Bessie's experience at the circus where there are two "Whites Only" ticket lines but only one line that she is allowed in, so of course the one line takes much longer and even when a "Whites Only" line is empty and the show is about to start, the vendor won't sell her and her sister and tickets. (Oh, and there's also mention at the beginning that Bessie's father is almost a full-blooded Indian and left the family to go live in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma. It doesn't go any further into the relationships between Blacks and Natives in the US, but I appreciated that acknowledgement.)

Bessie's fantasies of flying far away, up past the clouds, recur throughout the narrative.

She follows her older brothers to Chicago, and we read, "To Bessie, Chicago is a land of dreams. Here, she is far away from the Jim Crow laws of the South---laws that tell Bessie she can't eat, drink, or ride in the same places as whites. Bessie does not know that even in the North, people with skin the darker shades of heaven are not always considered people at all."

When her brothers return from fighting in World War I, they tell her about the airplane fighter pilots and how some of them are even women. The accompanying illustration of Bessie on a rug reading newspaper articles is seen from above, so she appears almost to be floating in mid-air.

No one in the US will teach a black woman to fly a plane, and she is recommended to go to France -- so she saves up to go to France and takes night classes to learn French. She earns her pilot's license -- supposedly the first black woman in the world to do so -- and hopes to open a flying school in the US. She does airshows to raise money. The book ends before her early death in a plane crash (though the Author's Note after the story covers it briefly), ending instead a few years prior on a happy note in the midst of a successful air show.

[Kelly Wiegand]

Kelly Wiegand
April 27, 2015
EDL54500 Library Materials for Children and Youth

Title: Fly, Bessie, Fly

Author: Lynn Joseph

Plot: When Bessie's brother's return from the war, they tell her about the women pilots they worked with. This inspires Bessie to become the first African American pilot. Bessie travels to France to learn to fly because she has trouble finding anyone to teach her how to fly a plan in the United States. Bessie learns to fly and is admired by many when she becomes the first pilot who is an African American woman.

Setting: Cotton Fields; Texas; Fair; Chicago

Characters: Bessie Coleman; Ma; Georgia; George Coleman; Mr. Jackson; Walter; John

Point-of-View: The story is told in third-person with some first-person narrative through Bessie's letters home.

Themes: Perseverance; Hard Work; Ambition; Bravery; Segregation; Women's Rights; Civil Rights

Style: A piece of a song Bessie sings on the first page of the book reappears throughout the story.

Copyright: 1998

Reflection: This is an inspiring biography. It includes a lot of information about Bessie Coleman and the time period she was living in. This is a good book to use for teaching lessons on biographies and character theories.

[Kiara Aytch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fly, Bessie, Fly by Joseph is the story of Bessie Coleman the first African American women aviator. Her story begins by talking about her growing up as a slave and then later being freed and her journey once she was free. Once free she goes to Chicago to live with her brothers during World War. One of her brothers come back after fighting and tells Bessie of the women pilots that were fighting in the war and says how that could never happen for a black woman. Her other brother inspires her to become the first one and she agrees, goes to France where she learns to fly and then flies back to America where she is became the first and only and black aviator (women).This nonfiction book is in the form of a biography, traditional narrative history that is intended for children in grades kindergarten through third grade. According to the checklist this book covers all aspects of illustrations, six out of seven in the story section and six out of eight in cultural considerations. This relates to my topic because it is women’s rights and women activist.

[Jazmin Carr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes a creative twist to a true story. The book transforms what could be another boring informative story into something imaginative and real to a young person. The story transforms the story into something that has happened in the past to create a feeling of something that could happen with the overwhelming feeling of encouragement, fulfillment, and life given off from the story. The book teaches readers that the sky is really the only limit when it comes to fulfilling your dreams and making what you want happen. This book does a great job of intertwining a great message within a historical story and adding great illustrations along the way. For those that do not mind a poetic spin to a realistic story of the biography of Bessie Coleman, this would be a great story to read and enjoy while gaining information. This great depiction of biographical poetry provides a great opportunity for effective phonemic awareness to occur within the story through the great dynamics and combinations of words, syllables, and sounds.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a far more detailed edition of Bessie Coleman's life than many of the other children's biography I've read. At times, it feels like an overwhelmingly detailed account, but all in all, it's very well done.

[Liz Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this to my class kids a couple of times and remember it to be lyrical and moving. Bessie Coleman's story is inspirational on its own and this is a great book to learn more about her.

[ConnieLettow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that turns out to be much better than anticipated. I loved it! Bessie Coleman grew up picking cotton in Waxahachie, Texas durning the time frame of the Jim Crow Laws (segregation). She dreamed of leaving Texas, the cotton fields, and the segregated mind set of the South. She moved to Chicago where her 2 older brothers were living and working (one of them, Walter, as a Pullman train porter) and met many people who inspire her. Her brother John is conscripted into WWI and returns to tell her about fighter pilots, some of whom are women. She is mesmerized and decides to become a pilot. However, no one in Chicago, or anywhere in the USA for that matter, will teach her to fly. She has to go to France. She saves money working in a restaurant, takes night classes in French, and eventually, sails to France and learns to fly. She comes back to the US and becomes an instant star. At one point, there is a show in her old hometown, Waxahachie, but the Jim Crow laws are still in effect, so she never flies there. Her life is cut short at an airshow and she is buried in Chicago where over 10,000 people attend her funeral. To this day, pilots do fly overs and drop flowers on her grave on the anniversary of her death, April 30th.