A Pair of Wings

Pilot Hopson’s stirring debut draws on the life of trailblazing aviator Bessie Coleman. As a young Black woman, Bessie toils in Waxahachie, Tex., picking cotton and doing other people’s laundry. In 1915, when she’s 23, she leaves for Chicago, where she finds work as a manicurist. Having heard of the Wright brothers’ first flight, she harbors a dream of learning to fly. She saves what she can of her earnings and secures financial support from a real estate entrepreneur, with whom she has an affair. Though she has the money, no aviation school in the U.S. will train a Black woman, prompting her to study in France. After receiving her pilot’s license, Bessie returns to the U.S., where she’s greeted by a mob of reporters. The narrative extends through WWI, after which Bessie trains in Europe with military pilots who teach her combat maneuvers. Back home in America, she stages air shows with the tricks she learned abroad and embarks on a lecture tour, hoping to inspire other Black people to learn to fly. Hopson shines a welcome light on her indomitable and unsung heroine, and her technical knowledge enriches the many exhilarating aerial scenes. Aviation buffs will love this. (Aug.)