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50books_poc#5: Sherri L. Smith, Flygirl
Ida Mae Jones wants to fly, the way her daddy taught her to. In 1940s Louisiana, though, a black girl has no chance to fly; Ida can't even get a license. When her little brother brings home an article about the Women's Airforce Service Pilots, formed by Jacqueline Cochran to ferry planes and free up male pilots to fight in the war, Ida thinks this might be her chance to help in the war and help bring her brother home from the front. But the WASP don't take black women, so to get in, Ida has to pass for white.
Smith's exploration of Ida's choice is nuanced and complex; there's lots of family history involved with her choice. Ida chooses to pass so that she can pursue her dream and help her country, but she finds that it's not as simple as it might appear. She is constantly afraid she'll reveal herself to her new friends and instructors, and she even has to deny her own family. Ida is a great character, smart, brave, and full of determination in the face of adversity, even when she's full of doubts. Smith does an excellent job weaving her characters into their historical background, from Ida's family life in Louisiana to her WASP training and career. Smith intriguingly leaves a little bit of the plot open-ended, but she provides enough closure for a very satisfying ending to a very good book.
#6: Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful
Terra Cooper is mostly beautiful...except for the huge red birthmark across one cheek. She and her family have been obsessed with it all her life: her mother urges her to try new treatments, her father simply denigrates her, and although Terra uses thick makeup to cover it up, she can't mask her need to be free of it and of her stifling life. When she meets Jacob, a Goth guy from Seattle, he begins to help her win free of the façade she hides behind.
I thought this was pretty good, but I liked Girl Overboard more, possibly because I found it more focused. The map metaphor Headley uses for Terra's life (her controlling, horrible father is a cartographer) is badly overstrained and unsubtle, and the book starts quite slowly, getting bogged down in Terra's various interactions with her father, her mother, both her brothers, her best friend, and her boyfriend. Cutting the best friend and the second brother might have helped here, because I didn't think Headley really gave them enough screen time to develop Terra's relationships with them enough.
However, once Jacob showed up, I was a lot happier, though really, I found him (the adopted Asian son of a white couple) more interesting than Terra and would have been even happier to read more about him. I liked the unexpected direction Headley went with the second half, and I loved both Terra's developing friendship (and more) with Jacob and her deepening relationship with her mother. I think the book would have been even stronger if it had focused more on these two relationships, and Terra's difficult ones with her father and older brother.
(Edited to correct bizarro name misremembering, argh.)
Ida Mae Jones wants to fly, the way her daddy taught her to. In 1940s Louisiana, though, a black girl has no chance to fly; Ida can't even get a license. When her little brother brings home an article about the Women's Airforce Service Pilots, formed by Jacqueline Cochran to ferry planes and free up male pilots to fight in the war, Ida thinks this might be her chance to help in the war and help bring her brother home from the front. But the WASP don't take black women, so to get in, Ida has to pass for white.
Smith's exploration of Ida's choice is nuanced and complex; there's lots of family history involved with her choice. Ida chooses to pass so that she can pursue her dream and help her country, but she finds that it's not as simple as it might appear. She is constantly afraid she'll reveal herself to her new friends and instructors, and she even has to deny her own family. Ida is a great character, smart, brave, and full of determination in the face of adversity, even when she's full of doubts. Smith does an excellent job weaving her characters into their historical background, from Ida's family life in Louisiana to her WASP training and career. Smith intriguingly leaves a little bit of the plot open-ended, but she provides enough closure for a very satisfying ending to a very good book.
#6: Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful
Terra Cooper is mostly beautiful...except for the huge red birthmark across one cheek. She and her family have been obsessed with it all her life: her mother urges her to try new treatments, her father simply denigrates her, and although Terra uses thick makeup to cover it up, she can't mask her need to be free of it and of her stifling life. When she meets Jacob, a Goth guy from Seattle, he begins to help her win free of the façade she hides behind.
I thought this was pretty good, but I liked Girl Overboard more, possibly because I found it more focused. The map metaphor Headley uses for Terra's life (her controlling, horrible father is a cartographer) is badly overstrained and unsubtle, and the book starts quite slowly, getting bogged down in Terra's various interactions with her father, her mother, both her brothers, her best friend, and her boyfriend. Cutting the best friend and the second brother might have helped here, because I didn't think Headley really gave them enough screen time to develop Terra's relationships with them enough.
However, once Jacob showed up, I was a lot happier, though really, I found him (the adopted Asian son of a white couple) more interesting than Terra and would have been even happier to read more about him. I liked the unexpected direction Headley went with the second half, and I loved both Terra's developing friendship (and more) with Jacob and her deepening relationship with her mother. I think the book would have been even stronger if it had focused more on these two relationships, and Terra's difficult ones with her father and older brother.
(Edited to correct bizarro name misremembering, argh.)
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Date: 2009-03-03 11:53 pm (UTC)Er, do you mean Jacob and not Marcus? The love interest, not the older brother, right?
Also, waaaah, everyone is getting to read Flygirl before meeee. /whine
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Date: 2009-03-04 01:04 am (UTC)You'll enjoy it that much more for the anticipation, right?