Skies Over Sweetwater
by Julia Moberg
by Julia Moberg
SKIES OVER SWEETWATER by Julia Moberg
Category: Contemporary
Age Recommendation: Grades 6+
Release Date: 3/15/08
Publisher: Keene Publishing
Reviewed by: Jennifer Rummel
Rating: 5 Stars
Byrd’s father loved flying and spreading the joy of flying. When he died in a flying accident, Byrd’s mother refused to
talk about airplanes or even let her daughter near one. Byrd disobeyed, and found herself when she flew. Soon she
obtained a pilot’s license and gave lessons.
During WWII, she heard about a special school for women pilots to aid the war effort. She immediately took the
entrance exam, never dreaming that she’d be accepted.
Byrd leaves small town life and travels across the country by train to attend WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots)
training school. Here, the girls sleep on cots, share a bathroom with twelve other women, perform calisthenics, and
enjoy excellent food during a time where rationing food swept the nation.
Then the real day begins when they attend flying lessons with men who want them to fail.
Bi-weekly tests secure a girl’s place at the school, and if performances are not acceptable, girls wash out and go home.
Byrd and her friends are determined not to let that happen to their squad. For these girls, flying is in their blood, and
they feel at home in the air.
Julia Moberg writes about a little known fact in American history when the women ruled the skies, testing airplanes for
the Air Force, ferrying planes for male pilots, and doing their part for the war effort.
Category: Contemporary
Age Recommendation: Grades 6+
Release Date: 3/15/08
Publisher: Keene Publishing
Reviewed by: Jennifer Rummel
Rating: 5 Stars
Byrd’s father loved flying and spreading the joy of flying. When he died in a flying accident, Byrd’s mother refused to
talk about airplanes or even let her daughter near one. Byrd disobeyed, and found herself when she flew. Soon she
obtained a pilot’s license and gave lessons.
During WWII, she heard about a special school for women pilots to aid the war effort. She immediately took the
entrance exam, never dreaming that she’d be accepted.
Byrd leaves small town life and travels across the country by train to attend WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots)
training school. Here, the girls sleep on cots, share a bathroom with twelve other women, perform calisthenics, and
enjoy excellent food during a time where rationing food swept the nation.
Then the real day begins when they attend flying lessons with men who want them to fail.
Bi-weekly tests secure a girl’s place at the school, and if performances are not acceptable, girls wash out and go home.
Byrd and her friends are determined not to let that happen to their squad. For these girls, flying is in their blood, and
they feel at home in the air.
Julia Moberg writes about a little known fact in American history when the women ruled the skies, testing airplanes for
the Air Force, ferrying planes for male pilots, and doing their part for the war effort.
