Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Believe it or not–and frankly, I surprised myself–I finished another book today, and I almost went ahead and reviewed that, further ignoring my backlog; it’s after 7, however, so I decided instead to tackle the shortest book on my backlog and put off the one I just finished for a couple of days. (By the way, I only managed to finish it because I spent a happy hour reading last night, read more during one child’s therapy appointment, and then finished the last few pages after getting home. I managed to focus better than I often do, which is a blessing.)

As far as the weekend, my son won his flag football game, we prayed hard (and are still praying) for a friend in our neighborhood who’s in intensive care, I went to a friend’s karate birthday party, and all six of us cooperated in getting dinner ready on Sunday, which was lovely. And–with open windows–we managed to avoid turning on the AC! (The weather has turned again, so it’ll be back to heat again for a few days. Hallelujah!)

And now–the backlog. How long has it been since I finished Carole Boston Weatherford’s You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen? No one knows. It went pretty quickly, however, being a verse novel–with a timeline, resources section, and list of further reading, no less–that comes in under a hundred pages. With illustrations! (Although I have to admit, while the author’s son’s illustrations are interesting, they’re less my cup of tea. It’s the text I was most into.)

If you haven’t heard of the Tuskegee Airmen, they’re yet another example of the WWII-era US government being forced to admit that not-white-males are fully capable of doing the same things that white males are capable of–when they are (grudgingly, of course) given a chance. In this case, the government’s need for pilots eventually resulted in a pilot training program at Tuskegee Institute, a historically black university in Alabama. Some of those pilots ended up flying combat missions in the European theater, where–spoiler alert!–they proved unequivocally that skin color has nothing to do with capability.

Proved it–AGAIN.

Given the brevity of Weatherford’s–or is it Boston Weatherford’s?–work, I think I’m going to have all of my children read it before it goes back to the library, because it’s a piece of history I want them to know about. And you know what?

You should read it, too.