Taking Off: Airborne with Mary Wilkins Ellis McCully Emily Arnold

Written and illustrated by a Caldecott Medalist, Taking Off describes how Mary Wilkins Ellis' childhood passion for flying led to an exciting career in the air.As a child, Mary Wilkins Ellis longed to fly, but she had to wait until she was 16 before she could have her first lesson. Mary was grounded.One day she chanced to hear a radio appeal for Britons with pilot's licenses--even women--to join the Air Transport Auxiliary and ferry brand new fighter planes to Royal Air Force bases. She soon became the youngest licensed pilot in her English county, but then all civilian flight was banned when Germany launched its attacks on Britain in 1940.

Mary immediately applied, and spent the rest of the war delivering hundreds of different kinds of aircraft--most of which she'd never flown before--forming lifelong bonds with her colleagues, surviving many a close call,