Published in 2014
96 pages
Connie Plantz is a reading specialist who has taught students from elementary school to college, and has been the education consultant for numerous textbooks.
What is this book about?
Author Connie Plantz captures all the tension and excitement of Coleman’s soaring achievements. From an early age, Bessie Coleman dreamed of flying, but racial bigotry and gender bias threatened to keep her grounded. Denied entrance to flight training school in the United States, Coleman went to Europe. She returned, triumphant, with a pilot’s license and hopes of opening a flight school for African Americans. Raising funds as a stunt pilot, “Brave Bessie” thrilled her audiences with aerial tricks. Coleman’s life ended in a tragic accident, but not before her dream of flight made aviation history.
Summed up well with further reading recommendations in this review from Eunice Weech, M. L. King Elementary School, Urbana, IL:
“Gr 4-8 – A well-researched look at the short but eventful life of the pioneer aviatrix. From her childhood in the cotton fields near Atlanta, TX, to a job as manicurist in a Chicago barbershop; from flight school near Paris to the tragic accident that ended her life, Plantz’s readable text re-creates the exciting life of this brave, determined individual. The author’s inclusion of chapter notes on sources, a list for further reading, and an extensive index make this a useful resource for reports. Period black-and-white photographs personalize the text. Philip Hart’s Up in the Air (Carolrhoda, 1996) is also well documented but is a better choice for less-capable readers. Louise Borden’s Fly High! (McElderry, 2001), Lynn Joseph’s Fly, Bessie, Fly (S & S, 1998), and Reeve Lindbergh’s Nobody Owns the Sky (Candlewick, 1996) are good-quality picture-book biographies for younger students.”
