Up in the Air: The Story of Bessie Coleman (Trailblazer Biographies) - Softcover

Gr. 4^-6. The first African American woman to become an airplane pilot, Coleman overcame many obstacles in pursuit of her goal. She grew up in poverty but was determined not to spend the rest of her life picking cotton in Waxahachie, Texas. When American flying schools refused to train an African American woman, she enrolled in an aviation school in France, where she became a pilot in 1921. Hart wears the juvenile biographer's usual rose-colored glasses while creating his portrait of Coleman. To his credit, he occasionally hints that she may have been less than perfect but then immediately tries to give each imperfection a positive spin, apparently not realizing that Coleman's flaws only make her more human and more interesting. Still, the book provides a very readable account of Coleman's life from childhood until her death in a 1926 plane crash. Black-and-white photos provide many images of Bessie Coleman and the world she knew and also show such documents as her passport and her pilot's license. Lillian Fisher's biography Brave Bessie: Flying Free (1995) covers the same subject, but many libraries will welcome another book on such a dynamic historical figure. Carolyn Phelan

Grade 5-8?Another 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, TX
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