000			03183cam a2200409 4500
001			on1398279442
003			OCoLC
005			20240906144519.0
008			231226s2024 nyua e 000 1 eng
010			_a 2023059525
020			_a9781250347213 _q(hardcover)
020			_a1250347211
035			_a(OCoLC)on1398279442
040			_aDLC _beng _erda _cDLC _dAZH _dORX _dOCLCO _dHBP _dRNL _dOCLCO _dCNCAR
042			_apcc
050	0	0	_aPS3608.O6955 _bP35 2024
082			_a813
100	1		_aHopson, Carole, _eauthor. _9140531
245	1	2	_aA pair of wings : _ba novel /
250			_aFirst edition.
264		1	_aNew York, New York : _bHenry Holt and Company, _c2024.
300			_a415 pages : _billustrations ; _c24 cm
520			_a"A riveting, adventurous novel inspired by the life of pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman, a Black woman who learned to fly at the dawn of aviation, and found freedom in the air"--
520			_aA few years after the Wright Brothers' first flight, Bessie was working the Texas cotton fields with her family when an airplane flew right over their heads. It buzzed so low she thought she could catch it in her hands. Bessie wasn't afraid. Without even thinking, she spread my arms out and pretended she was flying. She knew there was freedom in those wings. The daughter of a woman born into slavery, Bessie answers the call of the great migration, moving to Chicago as a single woman. While working as a manicurist in the White Sox barbershop, she wins the backing of two wealthy, powerful Black men, Robert Abbott, the publisher of The Chicago Defender, and Jesse Binga, Chicago's first Black banker. Abbott becomes her mentor and chronicles her adventures, while the good-looking gun-toting Binga becomes her lover. Her first love, though, remains the airplane. But In 1920, no one in the U.S. will train a Black woman to fly, so 26- year-old Bessie learns to speak French and bets it all on an epic journey to Europe as she begins a quest to defy the odds and gravity itself. Two years ahead of Amelia Earhart, Bessie is molded by battle-hardened French and German combat pilots, who teach her death-defying stunts. Bessie's signature majestic loops, spiky barrel rolls, and hairpin turns, just like her hardscrabble journey, are spellbinding. While she finds there is no prejudice in the air, Bessie must wrestle with many challenges: She nearly dies in a plane crash, one of her brothers seems to be crumbling under the weight of Jim Crow, and as she grapples with tough truths about Binga, Bessie begins to wonder if the freedom she finds is the air means she must otherwise fly solo.
600	1	0	_aColeman, Bessie, _d1892-1926 _vFiction. _9140532
650		0	_aAir pilots _zUnited States _vFiction. _9140533
650		0	_aAfrican American women air pilots _vFiction. _9140534
650		0	_aRacism against Black people _vFiction. _9139866
650		0	_aAmericans _zFrance _vFiction. _932968
650		0	_aMan-woman relationships _vFiction.
655		0	_aHistorical fiction.
655		7	_aHistorical fiction. _2lcgft
655		7	_aBiographical fiction. _2lcgft
655		7	_aNovels. _2lcgft
655		7	_aRomans. _2rvmgf
942			_2ddc _cF
999			_c64992 _d64992