High, Wide and Frightened, first published in 1938, is pioneering aviator Louise Thaden's account of her adventures in the early days of flying. Thaden (1905-1979) earned her pilot's certificate in 1928 and would go on to win numerous long-distance air-races, and set numerous records for high-elevation and long-endurance flights. This edition includes the chapter entitled "Noble Experiment," (omitted from later reissues of the book), which describes Thaden's vision on the use of women in combat. In the final chapter of the book, Thaden describes her friendship with Amelia Earhart, who disappeared in 1937 over the Pacific Ocean.

Amelia Earhart’s prominence in American aviation during the 1930s obscures a crucial point: she was but one of a closely knit community of women pilots. Although the women were well known in the profession and widely publicized in the press at the time, they are largely overlooked today. Like Earhart, they wrote extensively about aviation and women’s causes, producing an absorbing record of the life of women fliers during the emergence and peak of the Golden Age of Aviation (1925–1940). Earhart and her contemporaries, however, were only the most recent in a long line of women pilots whose activities reached back to the earliest days of aviation. These women, too, wrote about aviation, speaking out for new and progressive technology and its potential for the advancement of the status of women. With those of their more recent counterparts, their writings form a long, sustained text that documents the maturation of the airplane, aviation, and women’s growing desire for equality in American society. In Their Own Words takes up the writings of eight women pilots as evidence of the ties between the growth of American aviation and the changing role of women. Harriet Quimby (1875–1912), Ruth Law (1887–1970), and the sisters Katherine and Marjorie Stinson (1893–1977; 1896–1975) came to prominence in the years between the Wright brothers and World War I. Earhart (1897–1937), Louise Thaden (1905–1979), and Ruth Nichols (1901–1960) were the voices of women in aviation during the Golden Age of Aviation. Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001), the only one of the eight who legitimately can be called an artist, bridges the time from her husband’s 1927 flight through the World War II years and the coming of the Space Age. Each of them confronts issues relating to the developing technology and possibilities of aviation. Each speaks to the importance of assimilating aviation into daily life. Each details the part that women might—and should—play in advancing aviation. Each talks about how aviation may enhance women’s participation in contemporary American society, making their works significant documents in the history of American culture.

Louise Thaden wrote High, Wide, and Frightened in the prime of her life, making this autobiography unique among books about the Golden Age of Aviation. Thaden, a contemporary of Amelia Earhart, was part of a small group of determined women who overcame discrimination and obstacles to become pilots in a time when air races and distance, altitude and endurance records were daily news in America. She became the first woman to win the Bendix Transcontinental Air Race, the premier air race of the day and, before her, a male-dominated one. High, Wide, and Frightened is the story of Thaden's life, of her achievements in aviation, and also of her childhood in Arkansas. She writes about her everyday personal life and her day-to-day experiences in aviation. - Publisher.

From New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Honor recipient Steve Sheinkin, Born to Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America is the gripping true story of the fearless women pilots who aimed for the skies—and beyond. Featuring illustrations by Bijou Karman. Just nine years after American women finally got the right to vote, a group of trailblazers soared to new heights in the 1929 Air Derby, the first women's air race across the U.S. Follow the incredible lives of legend Amelia Earhart, who has captivated generations; Marvel Crosson, who built a plane before she even learned how to fly; Louise Thaden, who shattered jaw-dropping altitude records; and Elinor Smith, who at age seventeen made headlines when she flew under the Brooklyn Bridge. These awe-inspiring stories culminate in a suspenseful, nail-biting race across the country that brings to life the glory and grit of the dangerous and thrilling early days of flying. From Steve Sheinkin, the master of nonfiction for young readers who expertly unraveled the infamous story of whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and the impeachment of Richard Nixon, comes the untold story of fearless women who dared to fly. This title has common core connections. A 2020 ALSC Notable Children's Book Also by Steve Sheinkin: Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward Expansion King George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the American Revolution Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War

Aviation pioneer Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie (1902–1975) was once one of the most famous women in America. In the 1930s, her words and photographs were splashed across the front pages of newspapers across the nation. The press labeled her “second only to Amelia Earhart among America's women pilots,” and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt named her among the “eleven women whose achievements make it safe to say that the world is progressing.” Omlie began her career in the early 1920s when aviation was unregulated and open to those daring enough to take it on, male or female. She earned the first commercial pilot's license issued to a woman and became a successful air racer. During the New Deal, she became the first woman to hold an executive position in federal aeronautics. In Walking on Air, author Janann Sherman presents a thorough and entertaining biography of Omlie. In 1920, the Des Moines, Iowa, native bought herself a Curtiss JN-4D airplane and began learning how to fly and perform stunts with her future husband, pilot Vernon Omlie. She danced the Charleston on the top wing, hung by her teeth below the plane, and performed parachute jumps in the Phoebe Fairgrave Flying Circus. Using interviews, contemporary newspaper articles, archived radio transcripts, and other archival materials, Sherman creates a complex portrait of a daring aviator struggling for recognition in the early days of flight and a detailed examination of how American flying changed over the twentieth century.

The most terrifying novel you will read this year... Just as he's celebrating his last day on the job, FBI agent E L Pender receives a letter from Dorie Bell. Dorie is afraid. Last year she attended a convention for Persons with Specific Phobia Disorder. Since then, a couple of the delegates have died in suspicious circumstances. Carl Polander had acrophobia. Fear of heights. So what would he be doing on the 12th floor of the building the police say he jumped from? Mara Agajanian had haemophobia. Fear of blood. So how could she have cut her own wrists in the bathtub? Dorie, who suffers from an irrational fear of masks, wants Pender to look into these cases. She suspects there may be a twisted serial killer on the loose. Someone, who quite literally, enjoys scaring his victims to death. Dorie's right. But she has no idea just how close to her the killer is...