PILOT MOM

Jenny and her best friend K.C. get a tour of the air base and airplane where Jenny’s Mom is a tanker pilot. Jenny fears for her mother and misses her when she’s away, but she’s also very proud of her. The girls get to go on the plane and try on the pilots’ cool helmets. Jenny’s mother loves her job, and allows Jenny talk through all of her worries, acknowledging and responding to them. She tells the girls about the time in Saudi Arabia the control tower wouldn’t answer because they didn’t think women should be pilots, and she had to get her male co-pilot to make the radio call. Marks’s pictures are quite wonderful, gorgeous depictions of the planes, inside and out, on the ground and in the air. Jenny’s blonde, K.C. is African-American; they and Jenny’s parents and other people at the air base are fully and realistically rendered. A lot of information made palatable for young people while responding to their questions and fears in a post– “shock and awe” world. (Picture book. 5-10)