Flygirl

Chapters 1-3  

Reading Check

1. She wants to get her pilot’s license; she already passed, but sexism prevented her from receiving it in Alabama. (Chapter 1)

2. They take the trolley. (Chapter 1)

3. Her father (Chapter 1)

Short Answer

1. Jolene is jealous, and Ida Mae knows her appearance doesn’t warrant the extra attention. (Chapter 1)

2. He wants to help people in his community; he believes they shouldn’t have to run miles away to get the nearest doctor, as he had to when their father died. (Chapter 2)

3. Abel, her brother, gives her an article about the US military’s use of female pilots in the WASP program. (Chapter 3)

Chapters 4-6

Reading Check

1. There was a “paper bag test” to get in; they weren’t allowing anyone in who wasn’t lighter than a brown paper bag. (Chapter 4)

2. Jolene convinces her to borrow from the closet of a client who is out of town. (Chapter 5)

3. She assumes Ida Mae has been to see her father’s mother, Grandmère Boudreaux. (Chapter 6)

Short Answer

1. No, because Ida Mae watched a Black female pilot who went in before her get rejected. (Chapter 5)

2. Their father has been rejected by her because he married a Black woman, instead of a white woman as planned. He messed up his family’s plans to keep themselves light enough to pass. (Chapter 6)

Chapters 7-9   

Reading Check

1. Sweetwater, Texas; Avenger Field (Chapters 7-8)

2. Ida Mae will pay for the trip with the money she saved to go to Chicago. If she becomes a WASP, she will get paid, and she promises to send money home to make up for her absence. (Chapter 7)

3. Patsy is a wing walker, which is a type of circus or carnival performer who walks on airplane wings while they are in flight. (Chapter 9)

4. She has Spanish blood. (Chapters 8-9)

Short Answer

1. If her hair becomes too curly, it’s a tale-tell sign that she’s passing. (Chapter 8) 

2. She’s a wealthy girl and her mother insisted she pack everything she needed or might have needed. (Chapter 9, inferred)

3. It says that she doesn’t take kindly to prejudicial hatred, and she has decided that Lily and Ida Mae are her friends. (Chapter 9)

Chapters 10-12   

Reading Check

1. They stick together and warn one another about him trying to throw them from the plane. Patsy even does a carnival trick when he tries to eject her from the plane, and Ida Mae throws her hands in the air as if she were on a roller coaster. (Chapter 10)

2. She was thrown in the water at a young age and almost drowned. (Chapter 11)

3. Train tracks (Chapter 12)

Short Answer

1. He constantly tries to trick and humiliate them; for example, he ejects Lily from the plane so that she has to use her parachute during a loop. (Chapter 10)

2. She feels guilty because she has already lied about her race and about having her pilot license in order to join the WASP program. (Chapter 11)

3. He’s handsome, kind, and friendly. (Chapter 12)

Chapters 13-15   

Reading Check

1. Hap Martin made her do extra maneuvers that weren’t on the test because he wanted her to fail. (Chapter 13)

2. Writing letters home to her family and friends (Chapter 14)

3. The handsome instructor Walt Jenkins (Chapter 14)

4. Flying in the darkness of night and practicing with the Link trainer (Chapter 15)

Short Answer

1. She’s passing, so everything she does that night is illegal. If she has too much fun or lets loose too much, she could get caught and be sent to jail or worse. (Chapter 14)

2. When she’s alone, she feels more exposed. When people see her among other white women, it’s easier for them to see her as one among the group. (Chapter 15)

Chapters 16-18   

Reading Check

1. She comes to Avenger Field to tell Ida Mae that Thomas (her brother) has gone missing in the South Pacific and ask her to ask the Army to help find him. (Chapter 16)

2. She told them that the woman was her mother’s maid and that her mother’s maid’s son had been her childhood best friend. (Chapter 16)

3. They have to fly nearly 3000 miles from Philadelphia to California. (Chapter 17)

4. Her fuel line was broken, so she had to fly low and slow with the hope of landing safely. (Chapter 18)

Short Answer

1. An associate of her grandfather’s, someone who had been told to keep an eye out for Ida Mae (Chapters 15-16)

2. Lily’s wedding is going to be at the Waldorf-Astoria, which is a whites-only establishment. Ida Mae has not decided whether she’s going to continue to pass after the war is over. (Chapter 17)

Chapters 19-21

Reading Check

1. Grandy greets her at the train. Her brother Thomas waits for her at home along with her mother and Abel. (Chapter 19)

2. A lot of people have assumed that she is pregnant. (Chapter 20)

3. It’s the first one specifically for women. (Chapter 21)

Short Answer

1.  It’s one of the few jobs a woman in the military could have had at that time. It is also one of the most common. (Chapter 20)

2. These are desperate times. Most eligible men are already fighting overseas. (Chapter 21)

Chapters 22-24  

Reading Check

1. The men won’t fly it because it’s an experimental and deadly plane. (Chapters 22-23)

2. They go out for a steak dinner. (Chapter 23)

3. The women take a detour to Delaware where Lily’s husband is waiting. An army chaplain performs their wedding. (Chapter 23)

Short Answer

1. They feel that the Army values women’s safety less than men’s safety. (Chapters 22-23)

2. The work is too dangerous to continue and safely carry a child at the same time. She’ll be dismissed during the medical exam. (Chapter 24)

Chapter 25-Epilogue   

Reading Check

1. Officer training is co-ed. (Chapter 26)

2. B-29, the same plane Ida Mae and Lily flew experimentally (Epilogue)

Short Answer

1. Women aren’t officially part of the military or extended the same benefits as the men in the military. (Chapter 25)

2. She hasn’t decided if she’s going to keep passing after the war is over. She isn’t sure if Walt will accept her if he knows she’s a Black woman. (Chapter 26)