Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: historical fiction, YA
Review: If you're like me, and really had no idea that the Italians took over Ethiopia in the 1930s, and maybe had only a vague idea that Haile Selassi was the emporer of Ethiopia at some point, but no real clue about when or why he was important or anything else, this book is a great place to start. It's not really about Haile Selassi or the Italo-Ethiopian war, but you'll learn a lot about both as you read.
This book is really about flying, and family, and bravery, and loyalty, with a lot of imagination and quick-thinking thrown in. Emilia and Teo are being raised as siblings by their mothers, who are barnstorming pilots. Delia (Teo's mom) does the flying, and Rhoda (Em's mom) is a wingwalker. When Delia is killed by a bird strike, Rhoda takes Emilia and Teo back to her home in Pennsylvania. But Rhoda and Em are white, and Teo is black, and they must figure out to be a mixed-race family in the 1920s. To escape the racism that faces them in the US, they travel to Ethiopia, following Delia's dream. That's where Haile Selassi and the war come in, but the story stays tightly focused on Emilia and Teo's experiences.
Emilia and Teo's voices are a joy to read. Wein beautifully captures their relationship, their wonder at their new life in Ethiopia, their terror at what the threat of war means to their adopted country, and their trepidation as they learn to fly. There are so many reasons to read this book.
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