Romito, Dee. Love Is in the Air: The Story of Aviation Pioneer Nancy Harkness Love. Illustrated by Vivian Mineker. Aladdin, 2023. 978-1-534-48419-1. $18.99. Grades K-3. Unpaged.

When Nancy Harkness Love was just sixteen years old, she took an airplane ride that changed her life. She decided then and there that she wanted to learn how to fly. Nancy faced many obstacles in the field of aviation, but she ultimately earned her commercial pilot’s license and changed the course of history when she advocated for women to ferry airplanes for the U.S. Army Air Corps during WWII. She went on to lead 28 other women as squadron commander of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, which merged with another organization to become the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). The program was eventually shut down when men took their ferrying jobs back post-war, but Nancy and her fellow WASP members accomplished a great deal for women’s rights in America and were eventually granted veteran status. Pleasant, cartoon-like illustrations accompany this straightforward biography about an important female pilot in our nation’s history. Back matter includes an author’s note, black and white photographs of Nancy, and a list of sources.

THOUGHTS: The message in this picture book biography is clear: girls can persevere and accomplish anything they set their minds to, even if they face obstacles along the way. Pair this with other titles about female pilots, such as Meghan Browne’s Dorothy the Brave (2022), Emily McCully’s Taking Off: Airborne with Mary Wilkins Ellis, and/or Julie Leung’s The Fearless Flights of Hazel Ying Lee (2021).

921 Biography
940.54 Military History of World War II