by the agency of Nikki Grimes.

by the agency of Nikki Grimes, illustrated by E B Lewis Orchard Books/Scholastic, November 2002 $1695 ISBN 0-439-35243-6

Bessie Coleman was the first licensed black female aviator in the nation. Despite growing up in the segregated southern and battling misogynist attitudes at each turn, Bessie realized her dream to become a pilot. Talkin' About Bessie is wager in a parlor on the southward Side of Chicago, days after Bessie's death in a plane crash forward April 30, 1926. Family, friends and acquaintances gather to mourn the young woman's death. Each of 20 population in the fictionalized biography share a special memory that highlights Bessie's short further remarkable life.

Her adventurous spirit, courage, determination, intelligence and perseverance are portrayed according to several characters. When Bessie's brother John declares her that women in France have careers as pilots, he challenges her: "You african women ain't never goin' to fly" With that remark he says, "she gave up her manicurin' do job-work that very day. That's when I knew: on whatever miracle was required, Bessie would learn to fly"

E B Lewis' watercolor illustrations guide readers between the sides of each stage of Bessie's life, from a young girl washing white folks' laundry, to the heady experience of being the sole woman and only black somebody attending a flight school in France. Grimes, the author of take rise Sunday and Stepping Out With Grandma, has written a rich and loving account of undivided young woman's desire to go in the rear [i]or[/i] in the wake of her dream, and the bliss of having done that. Says Bessie: "In the cessation I count myself twice blessed: first, to have experienced the exultation of flight; and, second, to have shared it with others of my race. I'll say this and no more: You have not lived until you have flown!

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