Overview

In this ""masterful, inspiring evocation of an era"" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), award-winning author Carole Boston Weatherford ""wields the power of poetry to tell [the] gripping historical story"" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) of the Tuskegee Airmen. I WANT YOU! says the poster of Uncle Sam. But if you're a young black man in 1940, he doesn't want you in the cockpit of a war plane. Yet you are determined not to let that stop your dream of flying. So when you hear of a civilian pilot training program at Tuskegee Institute, you leap at the chance. Soon you are learning engineering and mechanics, how to communicate in code, how to read a map. At last the day you've longed for is here: you are flying! From training days in Alabama to combat on the front lines in Europe, this is the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the groundbreaking African-American pilots of World War II. In vibrant second-person poems, Carole Boston Weatherford teams up for the first time with her son, artist Jeffery Weatherford, in a powerful and inspiring book that allows readers to fly, too.

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9781481449397

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Reviews

* Weatherford again wields the power of poetry to tell a gripping historical story, reinforced by dramatically shaded scratchboard illustrations by her son, making a notable debut. --Publishers Weekly, starred review * Weatherford s skill with language provides clear voices for the trainees, and cultural specifics provide additional texture and deepen understanding of the young men. A masterful, inspiring evocation of an era. --Kirkus Reviews, starred review * Weatherford again wields the power of poetry to tell a gripping historical story, reinforced by dramatically shaded scratchboard illustrations by her son, making a notable debut. --Publishers Weekly, starred review * Weatherford's skill with language provides clear voices for the trainees, and cultural specifics provide additional texture and deepen understanding of the young men. A masterful, inspiring evocation of an era. --Kirkus Reviews, starred review *-Weatherford again wields the power of poetry to tell a gripping historical story, reinforced by dramatically shaded scratchboard illustrations by her son, making a notable debut.---Publishers Weekly, starred review * -Weatherford's skill with language provides clear voices for the trainees, and cultural specifics provide additional texture and deepen understanding of the young men. A masterful, inspiring evocation of an era.---Kirkus Reviews, starred review Weatherford's informative, evocative poems follow the Airmen from the early vision . . . to the flyers' experiences at home and abroad, with poems about Joe Louis and Lena Horne reminding us that the Airmen were also fighting another war in this country--against prejudice. --Horn Book - July/August 2016 This volume offers a vivid, personal point of view. A welcome addition to traditional books on the Tuskegee Airmen. --Booklist - April 1, 2015

* Weatherford s skill with language provides clear voices for the trainees, and cultural specifics provide additional texture and deepen understanding of the young men. A masterful, inspiring evocation of an era. --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* Weatherford's skill with language provides clear voices for the trainees, and cultural specifics provide additional texture and deepen understanding of the young men. A masterful, inspiring evocation of an era. --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* Weatherford again wields the power of poetry to tell a gripping historical story, reinforced by dramatically shaded scratchboard illustrations by her son, making a notable debut. --Publishers Weekly, starred review * Weatherford's skill with language provides clear voices for the trainees, and cultural specifics provide additional texture and deepen understanding of the young men. A masterful, inspiring evocation of an era. --Kirkus Reviews, starred review This volume offers a vivid, personal point of view. A welcome addition to traditional books on the Tuskegee Airmen. --Booklist - April 1, 2015 Weatherford's informative, evocative poems follow the Airmen from the early vision . . . to the flyers' experiences at home and abroad, with poems about Joe Louis and Lena Horne reminding us that the Airmen were also fighting another war in this country--against prejudice. --Horn Book - July/August 2016 The narrative voice draws readers into the action, addressing them directly and inviting them to imagine themselves into this ground-breaking role . . . this title is particularly well adapted to classroom use, where language arts and history students can share common air space. --BCCB This book sheds light on the Tuskegee Airmen through stories filled with authentic voices and hard truths. For those who already know of the Airmen's accomplishments, the book offers a more personal connection to the men and their ideas and feelings through poems . . . which demonstrate that despite their proven skill and heroism, the aviators were still denied acceptance and respect. --School Library Journal

Author Information

Carole Boston Weatherford has written many award-winning books for children, including Kin, illustrated by her son Jeffery and a Coretta Scott King Author Honor recipient; Box, which won a Newbery Honor; Unspeakable, which won the Coretta Scott King Award, a Caldecott Honor, and was a finalist for the National Book Award; Respect: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award; ALA Notable Children's Book You Can Fly; and Caldecott Honor winners Freedom in Congo Square; Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement; and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Carole lives in North Carolina. Visit her at CBWeatherford.com. Jeffery Boston Weatherford is an award-winning children's book illustrator and a performance poet. He has lectured, performed, and led art and writing workshops in the US, the Middle East, and West Africa. Jeffery was a Romare Bearden Scholar at Howard University, where he earned an MFA in painting and studied under members of the Black Arts Movement collective AfriCobra. A North Carolina native and resident, Jeffery has exhibited his art in North Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, and Washington, DC. Visit him at CBWeatherford.com.

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