Module 5, part 2 - Talkin' About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman

Bibliography

Grimes, N. (2002). Talkin’ About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman. New York: Orchard Books

Summary

Through the voice of family members, friends, teachers, and others, we are told the story of Elizabeth Coleman, the first person of African descent to obtain a pilot’s license.  As a child in Texas, even though Bessie worked hard in the cotton fields, she was never too tired or too discouraged to keep her from school.  As she became a teenager, she worked as a laundress, saving all her money so that she could go to college.  Although the money only lasted her for one semester of college, she did not give up.  It was when she was living in Chicago that she learned from her brother about women in France becoming pilots.  Bessie learned French, then she went to France where she obtained a pilot’s license.  It was Bessie’s dream to start a school for people of African descent to learn to become pilots.  However, Bessie died tragically in 1926, before she could realize this dream.

My Thoughts

I really like how the book was written and Bessie’s story told through the words of various people in her life.  Before reading this book, I was not familiar with who Elizabeth Coleman was or her amazing accomplishments.  I really admire her determination and dedication to realizing her dreams.  Even though she did not get a chance to realize her last dream of starting an aviator school for men and women of African descent, she had such an influence for good in the area of equal opportunity.  A truly inspiring story.

Reviews

“Grimes skillfully employs first-person testimonial verse to give young readers a fully realized portrait of African-American aviator Bessie Coleman.  At Coleman’s death, Grimes invites twenty individuals to a fictionalized wake and, in valedictory monologues, has each remember Bessie and the forces that shaped her life.  Bessie’s father tells about leaving the family when his daughter was “jus’ a chile.” Her mother recalls how she wanted Bessie to “first learn the wisdom of the Lawd, / and then, the wisdom of the world”; and older brother comments on her drive, how she “kept her focus fixed…to find a lifelong work of substance”; her flight instructor remembers how bravely Bessie flew a Nieuport 82 the day after witnessing one crash to the ground in flames; and a young fan reveres her idol: “I haven’t made up my mind about being a pilot, / but Bessie made me believe I could be anything.”  E.B. Lewis personalizes the tributes (and a concluding testimonial from Bessie) with small photo-like, sepia-toned portraits of the speakers.  Impressionistic watercolors on the facing pages evoke each incident and often soften the harshness in Coleman’s life.  Taken as a whole, these illustrations portray a young woman yearning for and taking pride in that “lifelong work of substance.” Although the assemblage of mourners is slightly contrived (would a field hand Coleman once worked alongside and a woman who once hired her to do laundry really be present at her wake?), their parts in Bessie’s story are integral to her early life.  Grimes separates fact from fiction through introductory comments on the historical period and the setting, concluding observation about Coleman, and source notes.  Like Bessie, this tribute to her life soars.”

Carter, B. (2003). [Review of the book Talkin’ About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman by N. Grimes].  Horn Book Magazine, 79(1), 96-97

Ideas for Use

I think this would be a great intro into a “What do you want to do when you grow up?” type of activity.  It can help kids and teens realize that their dreams can come true just like Bessie’s.