Flying Solo: How Ruth Elder Soared into America's Heart

Gr 2–5—Move over, Amelia…readers are about to meet Ruth Elder, Earhart's contemporary and fellow aviatrix. Inspired by Charles Lindbergh's solo Atlantic flight, Elder was determined to be the first woman to accomplish the same feat. "In 1927….Most people…believed that a woman belonged in the kitchen and not in a cockpit!" Undaunted, the stylish beauty queen and silent-movie actress was also a daredevil. Though a ruptured oil line left her and her copilot in the ocean, her plane in flames, "she never lost her courage or her lipstick." A few years later, she and 19 other women flyers, including Earhart, raced from Santa Monica to Cleveland, "…using only roadmaps and their own two eyes to find their way." While she lost her maps to heavy winds, and a forced landing caused a run-in with some cattle and a farmer's wife, she still managed to finish fifth. The clever, anecdotal text and vibrant spreads of the colorful planes and period costumes transport readers to another era, glamorous, yet restrictive toward the "fairer sex." Elder predicted that one day women would be fighter pilots…and she was right. An author's note and comprehensive source list are appended. Pair this offering with Marissa Moss's Sky High: The True Story of Maggie Gee (Tricycle, 2009) for a soaring look at women's history.—Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools