Me and the Sky
Captain Beverley Bass, Pioneering Pilot
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
The groundbreaking female pilot featured in the hit Broadway musical Come from Away tells her story in this high-flying and inspiring picture-book autobiography!
When Beverley Bass was a young girl in the late 1950s, she told her parents she wanted to fly planes--and they told her that girls couldn't be pilots. Still, they encouraged her, and brought her to a nearby airport to watch the planes take off and land.
After decades of refusing to take no for an answer, in 1986 Beverley became the first female pilot promoted to captain by American Airlines and led the first all-female crewed flight shortly thereafter. Her revolutionary career became even more newsworthy when she was forced to land in the remote town of Gander, Newfoundland, on September 11, 2001, due to US airspace closures. After several days there, she flew her crew and passengers safely home.
Beverley's incredible life is now immortalized in the hit Broadway musical Come from Away. Here, discover how she went from an ambitious young girl gazing up at the sky to a groundbreaking pilot smiling down from the cockpit.
"Inspiring and up, up, and away all the way."--Kirkus
"An inspiring biography about one woman's determination to forge a new path."--Booklist
Customer Reviews
Beautiful, must read book for all
There have been many moments in history where women have had to fight to do what they were passionate about. In the late 1970s and early 1980’s an Australian woman by the name of Deborah Lawrie took a then large Airline Company to the High Court because they wouldn’t employ her as a Commercial Airline Pilot simply because she was female.
Across the Pacific Ocean in the USA a woman by the name of Beverley Bass was paving the way for young girls and women everywhere who also had a dream. Bass became American Airline’s first female Captain in 1986 and later that year (December) captained American Airline’s first female crew. Since then, Bass has inspired many young women to not only become pilots but to pursue roles in fields that aren’t traditionally thought of as being female.
In September 2019, Bass first published her book Me and the Sky. Me and the Sky is a picture book aimed at children between the ages of 4-8 but I believe it is a book for girls and women of every age and everywhere. The book speaks in the beginning of an 8 year old Bass who would jump off her family washing machine and for that small moment, fly.
She loved that feeling of flying, of soaring in the air and was jovial when she achieved her pilot wings. I believe this book should be read by parents and teachers and by children themselves. I would even go as far as saying that it should be on school’s reading lists.
This autobiographical picture book documents Bass’s career from the beginning and includes the events surrounding her stay in Gander, Newfoundland following the closure of American Airspace after September 11th , 2001. In addition to the beautiful illustrations by Joanie Stone it includes some great real life photos of Bass.
Bass has taught a whole generation to not take no for an answer and to dream big. This is why I have not only bought a digital version for myself but will be purchasing physical copies for my niece and the schools I will visit in Nepal later this year.