Flygirl, by Sherri L. Smith

I actually read this book a few weeks ago; I have been so busy with school that it has been hard to post new content.  In any case, there has been plenty of time for me to read on public transportation!
Flygirl is about an African-American girl living in Louisiana right before WWII reaches American shores.  Her father taught her how to fly a "duster" plane; Ida Mae Jones is born and bred a pilot.  When Pearl Harbor is attacked, she wants to go and join the Women's Air Service Pilots (WASP) to do her part in helping end the war.  African-American men had a hard enough time being part of the U.S. Army (they were segregated and were not given the same degree of respect that white men were given), and the chances of African-American women joining the WASP are virtually zero.  But Ida Mae Jones is so light-skinned that she passes for white; the story, in essence, is about how she must hide her true heritage from the WASP and her new friends in order to do something she loves-flying-and something she needs to do-serving her country\y.  Sherri L. Smith does a good job describing the social environment Ida Mae Jones finds herself in, and she also discourses a bit on the double standard within the African-American community regarding those who choose to marry "lighter" so that they have a better chance of living as part of the white community.  I highly rcommend this book for mature girls 12-13 and up: not that there is any inappropriate content in the story, but the subject matter is, at times, grim and very serious.  Girls who like airplanes or other mechanical objects and even young men should enjoy this story about a young woman who sets out to fulfill her dream in the midst of war.