First and second person narratives in historical fiction can give readers a very powerful reading experience. These types of stories can bring history alive so that we can get a sense of what it was like to live in the past. Today I bring you a piece of historical fiction that is presented to the reader in the form of blank verse. It is a remarkable story that everyone, even people who don't care for history, will find interesting.
You can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen
You can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen
Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrated by Jeffery Boston Weatherford
Poetry
For ages 9 to 12
Simon and Schuster, 2017, 978-1481449380
Becoming a pilot is not easy, and if you are a person of
color it is particularly hard. There are only 130 black pilots in the nation
after all, and thousands of people who think that you “not fit to fly” because
of the color of your skin. You cannot give up on your dream though. “The engine
of your ambition will not brake / for walls of injustice – no matter how high.”
So off you go to
the Tuskegee institute with a Bible and a “box lunch from your mama,” and there
you spend your days being told what to do by Chief Anderson. Chief Anderson
knows how to fly and how to train pilots, and it turns out he also knows how to
win the favor of the First Lady. Eleanor Roosevelt goes up in his plane and she
sees first hand that black pilots can fly. Eleanor tells her husband the
president about her experience and he insists that black pilots should be given
“a shot.”
Thus it is that
the Tuskegee Experiment begins and it is up to you and the rest of the cadets
to prove to the world what you can do. There are only thirteen of you, and your
officers are all white; they are all eager not for the medals of a general, but
for the opportunity to make history. They have a lot to prove and they are
counting on you to prove that they were right to put their faith in you. They
are not the only ones who are watching. Indeed, “The eyes of your country are
on you,” and the “hopes of your people / rest on your shoulders.” It is a
fearsome burden.
Days, weeks, and
months of classwork and training go by and then you hear about the attack on
Pearl Harbor and suddenly more is at stake. A lot more. You are eager to do
your part and you follow the war news, and yet nothing happens. You wait and
then, at last, the words that you have been waiting for, “Move Out,” are
finally heard. You join four hundred of your fellow pilots from the 99th
Fighter Squadron and get on a train bound for New York.
Written in the
second person using a series of poems, this truly special book shows readers
what it was like to be a Tuskegee airman before, during, and after WWII. Readers
will come to appreciate the challenges that faced African-Americans who wanted
to be licensed pilots. They will read about the obstacles that were put in
their way even when they wanted to serve their country during wartime. It is
sobering to realize that these pilots, who did not lose a bomber in 200 of
their 205 missions, and whose military records were exemplary, came home only
to face racism and segregation.
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