Born to Fly by Steve Sheinkin, 262 pages. NON-FICTION
Roaring Brook Press, 2019.
$20.
Language: PG (5 swears);
Mature Content: G; Violence: G.
BUYING
ADVISORY: EL, MS, HS – ESSENTIAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
A group of daring women in the late 1920’s
challenge the largely held viewpoint that women couldn’t fly, by competing in an
Air Derby. Beginning when they were
young girls, Sheinkin describes six of the girls and their love of
taking to the air through jumping off roofs with umbrellas, to inventing their
own rollercoasters. As they grew older
each had their own moment when they knew they wanted to fly planes and their
journey to participating in the Air Derby in 1929. The Air Derby is the bulk of the story but is
interlaced with human interest stories about some of the pilots and the
challenges they faced. The women pilots’
goal was to show the world that women were qualified to take to the skies.
I loved this book. I got totally caught up in the Air Derby. I thought I had picked who I wanted to win the race, until Sheinkin would explain
the backstory of another pilot and their spunk and by the end, I found myself cheering
for all of them. This is an inspiring
story that Sheinkin has masterfully plotted to draw in the reader and he made it
impossible to put down.
Reviewer, C.
Peterson.