IDA FALLS

SUMMARY

        In chapters 16-20 written by Sherri L. Smith, Ida Mae Jones gets emotional and its already Christmas season. Ida is now close to the ending of her life at W.A.S.P and she has no idea what to do after that. The war is almost close to its end and so is the W.A.S.P. A few days before Christmas, Ida goes out to buy presents for her family at home, but she gets noticed, and by noticed, I mean her identity gets recognized. Luckily, it was a colored person who noticed her. This scare Ida to death. She thought that people were going to find out. Her Grandpa had warned her to be careful because if she gets caught, she could get killed. Once it was Christmas, Ida was emotional because she misses her family and wishes she could be there with them. Ida had been spending time with Patsy and Lilly and that made her feel better. Once everyone was opening presents, a guard called her to the front of the entrance of Avenger Field. She was very nervous until she saw her mother there. She was so happy she cried, but she couldn't hug her or even touch her at all because it would reveal her identity. Her mother was very happy to see her to. All Ida had to do was pretend her mother was maid, this devastated her badly. But at least she could see her mother. They both talked to each other about the things going on, but the main reason why her mother was there was because Thomas has gone missing. This shocked Ida and cause her to become dry worried. Over the next few weeks very woman had to take the final test to become an actual W.A.S.P. Ida had been studying and practicing and doing the best she can to find her brother by asking the army to find him. On the final test, all the woman had to fly from Texas to California in three days. If a trainee is late, they don't qualify. For Ida, this was easy, and she finally proved that by passing! So does Lilly, but something went terribly wrong. Patsy made it, but not alive. Unfortunately, her plane crashed at landing and blew up. Ida and Lilly were very sad and depressed. Both of them went to the ceremony, but they were both very sad. At the least, they were now W.A.S.P's. At the end of it all, Patsy goes bak home, and she is to decide wether or no she should keep on going with W.A.S.P or become the shy housemaid again.

PLANE CRASH

QUOTES

1.) "Don’t you see? This is what daddy used to fly for. The chance to be everything other than the color of his skin.”

• page 177 chapter 17, Sherri L. Smith
• I really like this quote because its very emotional and very inspirational
• This quote can show a lot of character from Ida because this shows that she has a strong personality.
• This quote is also very emotional because back then a colored person would be so limited to do the things the would want to do because of the color of there skin. 

2.) "Not a Negro woman, not a white woman, not a high yellow. But a pilot, mama. A good pilot that they need. "

• page 184, chapter 18, Sherri L. Smith
• This quote puts a lot of character in Ida
• I really like how she doesn't care what her limits are, she still tries no matter what.

CONCLUSION

       These five chapters were very sad. Ida lost her best friend, her brother is missing, and she has to lie to everyone in order to stay alive. She has had a hard time, but I can tell that she will find a way to a better life. Now that she is at her home, she has to decide wether to stay in the W.A.S.P or become a maid again. I hope she still continues in W.A.S.P because her dream is to fly.

IDA TRAINS

SUMMARY-

swimming test

       In chapters 11-15 in Fly Girl written by Sherri L. Smith, Ida Mae Jones has been training very hard every day. She has had many ups and downs these chapters. In the first chapter, Ida had to swim a whole lap around the Avenger Field pool! The thing is, she didn't know how to swim at all. She was always scared of it. Since Ida has a very good friendship with Lilly and Patsy, they both help her cheat her way through the test. Lilly got in front of Ida in the line and she went before Ida. As Lilly swam, Ida got out of the line. Once she finished her lap, Lilly got back in line and went again for Ida. Since everybody was wet, nobody noticed. Ida was very relieved as she saw that nobody noticed, she also noticed that some girls got disqualified for not being able to swim. In doing this,  Ida felt very wrong. She felt very lucky because if she didn't have these friends, she would be out. As the days went by, Ida has been training very hard for the test that shows if you qualify to move up to intermediates. The instructors give them their maps and informed the girls their location: Bakers Pond. The women studied their maps and prepared for the flight. A week had already passed and everybody was ready for the test. Ida volenteered to go first and as she did, she was very nervous. Bakers Pond was very hard to find in the map, and Ida thought about the possibility of failure. She got on the plane and began the test. after 20 minutes of flying, she finally landed and passed! She was very happy as Lilly and Patsy also passed. For the women that one the flight test, they all went and celebrated at the bar with the men from the army. Lilly and Patsy were off dancing with other men while Ida stayed at the table writing a letter to her family. She kept writing until suddenly an instructor for the W.A.S.P named Jenkins, asked Ida for a dance. Ida was very nervous because she had been asked to dance with her own instructor. She had been told that dancing with an instructor is against the rules, but Jenkins didn't care. So they both danced together and everyone was amazed, even her friends. After the celebration, all the girls that were now in the intermediate class had to train. Since they were all in a new class, they were all introduced to a new tool to help with training called a flight simulator. This was a machine that was attached to the floor and had special equipment to help simulate the feeling of flying. Ia volenteered to go first. But something caused Ida to go claustrophobic and so she panicked and fainted. After she woke up, she was afraid she would be sent home, and she realized how hard this will be.

QUOTES-

1.) "I wish the army has taught us how to navigate feelings as easily as they did a starless night sky"

Starless night

• Page 103, chapter 11, Sherri L. Smith
• I really like how this quote compares to things to make a metaphor.
• The two comparing things: navigating feelings, and navigating a starless night sky.
• The way the author put these words is really smart and I like how its has a meaning behind it

2.) "Fuel line."

              "Check."

              "Wing?"

              "Check."

              "Propeller."

              "Check."

• Page 114, chapter 12, Sherri L. Smith
• This quote is very interesting because it taught me the process that pilots do before takeoff.
• Also, since Ida is the one saying this, it informs me that she is very professional and takes flying super serious.

CONCLUSION

      These 5 chapters were not that fun or entertaining for me because it was mostly just details of training and all of that stuff. Since the last chapter left off with Ida in the emergency room after she fainted, I predict that she will probably not go home. The reason why I think this is because it happened to other girls. But who knows? Maybe she will go home, or maybe shell still be in the W.A.S.P. I personally hope she stays!

    

IDA GETS ACCEPTED

Summary

Zoot suits

In chapter 6-10 in Fly Girl written by Sherri L. Smith, Ida got accepted to join the W.A.S.P! She was very happy, but at the same time scared because she knew the reaction her family would have. Since Ida always wanted to fly, she said "why not," and told her family. Once she told them, they were very shocked and had a very long discussion, but gladly, the discussion ended with a yes! Two weeks has past and Ida is ready to become a W.A.S.P.  In the bus to Avenger Field (where all the woman would train to become a W.A.S.P for 5 months), Ida met many white women. One woman named Patsy Cakewalk had become friends with her. As well as another woman called Lilly. The first day of W.A.S.P training in Avenger Field was just a tour of the whole place. All the woman were introduced to the barracks they would sleep in containing only two showers for 12 women. They were also introduced to where the would eat, study, and train. The next day would begin with the training. All the women would where these suits called Zoot suits to fly. These suits were very baggy and very ugly looking. In this day, everyone is going to have the first test on flying with an instructor with the basic rules. While in flight, Ida had to go with a very mean instructor. This instructor wanted to "test the limits" of the women and make them think the plane had a technical error to show them how you should always where a parachute. This made almost the women think they failed including Ida's friend.Later that day all the women were mad at the instructor. In conclusion, Ida knew it will be hard to be a W.A.S.P.

QUOTES

1. "Aye Aye'" Lilly says with a sharp solute. "Aye Aye is the navy." I whisper from behind. "Oh cripes." She lowers her hand quickly. 

• pg. 85 chapter 10 Fly Girl, Sherri L. Smith
• I think quote is very  funny. Also, I think that it was rally funny to make Lilly say that because it gave her a lot of personality.
• The reason why i think it was funny is because they were all trying to become pilots and Lilly tried to be very military and it came out of her mouth the wrong way.

2. "The wind snaps around my eyes, tugging at my turban and goggles, burning my face with its speed.

• Pg. 96 chapter 10, by Sherri L. Smith.
• I really like how this quote gives a lot of details. 
• The way the author describes how Ida is flying, just comes together a picture in my mind.
• The choice in word in the sentence is also really thought out.

CONCLUSION

Wow! These 5 chapters were very interesting. Reading how things are done in the military with Ida makes the book very untiring. I just think it is amazing how Ida has a lot hope to become a W.A.S.P! Even though everything is going well for Ida, I predict that something bad will happen because right now, don´t see any problems.

IDA MAE JONES WANTS TO FLY

SUMMARY

Ida Mae Jones

         In the first five chapters of Fly Girl written by Sherri L. Smith, we meet our characters: Ida Mae Jones, Jolene, Thomas, Able, Grandy, and Ida's mother. In the first chapter, we learn the Ida is an 18 year old house cleaner with the hopes of becoming a pilot. Her inspiration was her father who died of a terrible accident when Ida was younger, but her father was a licensed pilot making Ida want to follow in his footsteps. In this time period, World War Two just started and Ida's older brother, Thomas (a 22 year old that is studying medicine), got enlisted in the war. This was a tragedy for Ida's family because they were all worried for him. A few years later, the war is still occurring and Able (Ida's younger brother), had seen an article in the newspaper informing about a women's flying academy to help with the war. Ida read that newspaper and was filled with joy because she never had a chance to actually fly for a good reason because women weren't permitted to fly in that time period. This flying academy was called the W.A.S.P - Women Air force Service Pilots. Since this was a once in a lifetime chance, Ida took the big opportunity and went to sign up (secretly). Since Ida had no flying license, she took her fathers and changed the photo and the name to Ida Mae Jones. When she arrived to sign up for W.A.S.P, she saw a colored women that could not sign up for W.A.S.P. A few minutes later she saw a white women that easily made it. Since Ida was a very light skinned women, she got enlisted pretending she was from Spanish culture.


QUOTES-

1. "Just remembering my first time in a plane, in my daddy's old Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny," I get goose bumps. Nothing else on Gods green Earth does that to me.

• Pg. 3, Chapter 1, Sherry L. Smith
• This quote made me impressed by how Ida is so attached to flying "Jenny".
• I think this quote shows that Ida is very attached to flying and feels a very strong connection to her father when she is in the sky.
• I also think the reason why she feels a strong connection is because her father was a pilot as well and "Jenny" reminds her of him

2. " Her interview does not take long. Three minutes later she emerges, her head held high, but her face holds the opposite of the smile her milkmaid wore. She  does not look at me or the secretary, just shakes her head and waits for the elevator to arrive."

• Pg. 43, chapter 5, Sherry L. Smith
• This quote made me angry because back then, you were judged by the color of your skin.
• I think that just because you are different from other people, it doesn't mean you should be treated differently just because those were the rules of society.
• The way the author explained how the other woman came out of the room made me understand how hurt she was, but she was strong enough to not show it.

 CONCLUSION

       The 5 chapters I read from Fly Girl show me many things like the characters, Ida's family, the war, the academy, and a lot more. At this point i really like the book and i think, it gets to the point very quickly. Due to the information from the first 5 chapters, I predict that Ida will go to the academy and have tough times, but she will learn.