{"id":25662,"date":"2020-01-25T12:42:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T17:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=25662"},"modified":"2020-01-22T01:24:57","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22T06:24:57","slug":"brookline-public-schools-approve-a-book-about-aviation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/25\/brookline-public-schools-approve-a-book-about-aviation\/","title":{"rendered":"Brookline Public Schools approve a book about aviation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Good news and bad news for a friend&#8217;s 12-year-old&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bad: he was sentenced to read a book by his teachers in the Brookline (Massachusetts) Public Schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Good: One of the choices was on an aviation theme. Maybe this won&#8217;t be a painful distraction from video games and learning about technology. Perhaps it will be <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fate_Is_the_Hunter\">Fate is the Hunter<\/a><\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reality: the assigned book, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2NP4MAb\">Fly Girl<\/a><\/em>, turns out to be more about skin color than aviation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the Amazon page:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>All Ida Mae Jones wants to do is fly. Her daddy was a pilot, and years after his death she feels closest to him when she&#8217;s in the air. But as a young black woman in 1940s Louisiana, she knows the sky is off limits to her, until America enters World War II, and the Army forms the WASP-Women Airforce Service Pilots. Ida has a chance to fulfill her dream if she&#8217;s willing to use her light skin to pass as a white girl. She wants to fly more than anything, but Ida soon learns that denying one&#8217;s self and family is a heavy burden, and ultimately it&#8217;s not what you do but who you are that&#8217;s most important.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Related:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bessie_Coleman\">Bessie Coleman<\/a>, a non-fictional pilot who identified as a black female<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Good news and bad news for a friend&#8217;s 12-year-old&#8230; Bad: he was sentenced to read a book by his teachers in the Brookline (Massachusetts) Public Schools. 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