Under Amelia's Wing by Heather Stemp

Under Amelia's Wing is the second book in the Ginny Ross series. 

Ginny arrives in Lafayette, Indiana, in August 1936, after a six day journey, to attend Purdue University. She is enrolled in the Mechanical Engineering program. University president Dr. Edward C. Elliott has hired Ginny's mentor, Amelia Earhart to provide career counselling and to be a part-time aviation counsellor.

At the train station, Ginny meets another student, Mabel Anderson. Together they make their way to the university and to the Women's Residence. Miss Schleman, director of the residence suggests they room together which Ginny and Mabel agree to. Mabel is very impressed that Ginny not only has met Amelia Earhart but that she has also helped her on her transatlantic flight.

The next morning, Ginny takes Mabel to the Purdue University Airport. As Ginny is admiring the Lockheed Vega in the hangar, they meet a boy named Matt Baker who is attempting to fix an engine. Ginny assesses the engine and quickly fixes the problem. This impresses both Matt and Captain Aretz, the airport manager. He invites Ginny to return to the airport the following day to share what she knows about engines. 

When Ginny does return to the airport with her friend Mabel, Cap has her run through servicing a Taylor Cub, the plane they use for training, while he watches. Impressed at her knowledge and skill in doing the servicing, Cap takes Ginny on a short flight over the campus. This flight thrills Ginny and makes her determined to become a pilot.

The next day classes begin and Ginny's first class is Engineering with Professor Malcom Jones, who happens to be Mabel's uncle. She assures Ginny that her Uncle Malcolm is a kind man. The class turns out to be a nightmare: Ginny is moved to the back of class and laughed at by the boys. However, one boy asks her to meet him at Frank's Coffee Shop on State Street after class. That boy turns out to be Jamie Baker, Matt Baker's brother. Ginny also meets Eddie Elliott, son of President Elliott. Eddie tells Ginny that his father wants to invite her when Amelia Earhart arrives at the university. When Ginny explains to Mabel how her uncle behaved towards her in class, Mabel brushes her concerns off as her uncle being strict. This leaves Ginny feeling confused.

Ginny decides the best plan is to "lay low, do my work, and leave the classroom as fast as I could." Both Jamie and Jack Stinson another boy in her class are willing to stick up for Ginny. However, Professor Jones continues to ridicule her, accusing her of writing notes to Jamie. After class both Matt and Ed suggest that Ginny fight back by showing what she can do and that she belongs in the class. The only positive news is a letter from Amelia Earhart telling Ginny that she has finally arrived at Purdue in her new Lockheed Electra.

The next morning Amelia is at breakfast in the Women's Residence. Amelia is staying in the guest suite on the first floor. Miss Schleman invites all of the women to a special presentation by Amelia on her transatlantic flight. As Amelia is leaving, she stops by Ginny's table to warmly greet her. Ginny's first class this day is physics taught by Professor Abernathy. He is impressed that Ginny knows about celestial navigation and is very friendly and supportive.

Ginny and Mabel meet Amelia at the Purdue University airport where Ginny is able to  inspect Amelia's new Lockheed Electra 10E. Unfortunately, Mabel learns that her beloved Uncle Malcolm has been harassing Ginny to force her to drop out of his engineering course. This upsets Mabel so much that she runs away from Ginny, refusing to talk to her. 

However, the situation with Professor Jones continues to deteriorate during the semester, despite Ginny's efforts to lay low. He accuses her of being a liar and a fraud. The situation reaches a crisis over Ginny's end-of-semester exam. Added to this is a heartbreaking letter from her friend Llewellyn. Even as her situation begins to be resolved at Purdue, Amelia's disappearance at the end of her flight around the world is a second blow to Ginny. With her mentor gone, Ginny must now find a new path forward to persevere in her dream of becoming a pilot.

Discussion

In this second installment of the Ginny Ross series, Ginny begins her studies at Purdue University with the goal of becoming a pilot. To help her is mentor and famed woman aviator, Amelia Earhart. It was Amelia who helped Ginny gain admission to Purdue.

This novel is set in the pre-war period, from 1936 to 1940. Ginny encounters stiff opposition from her engineering professor, Malcolm Jones, the uncle of her new friend, Mabel. This sets up the first crisis in the novel when Professor Jones removes a sheet from Ginny's exam, effectively failing her. While opposition and discrimination were common for women in science and engineering during the early 20th century, tampering with an exam seems an extreme tactic. During the first half of the 20th century, quotas were a significant reason women were unable to attend university or college but women were admitted to engineering programs. Much of the discrimination came after graduation: most women weren't given the same opportunities and recognition as their male counterparts. A woman might graduate with a degree in science but found she was often given lab work instead of a teaching and research position. World War II would begin to change that, but it wouldn't be until the late 1960's and 1970's that the situation would really change. In the novel, Ginny meets this challenge with fortitude and resiliency, forging on with the support of several male friends and help from the university president.

When Amelia Earhart is lost at sea, her disappearance and its effect on Ginny is profound. Stemp doesn't really provide her young readers with much information about the disappearance, but instead focuses on how Ginny struggles to cope with the loss of her mentor and friend. This presents a realistic picture of events at the time, as Amelia's disappearance was and remains today an unsolved mystery. All we know is that she never made it to Howland Island and most likely crashed into the sea. The remains of Amelia Earhart and her navigator Frederick Noonan and their Lockheed Electra have never been found despite extensive searches. 

Instead, the story moves on, as Ginny completes her her engineering degree and aviation training. When she graduates, along with friends Mabel, Jack, Jamie and her friend Matt, war looms in Europe. With everyone enlisting, Ginny has to decide what her contribution to the war effort will be, since women pilots are not allowed in the United States Air Force. 

Stemp has crafted a beloved, strong heroine in Ginny Ross. As in the first novel in the series, Ginny shows her mettle when she refuses to let Professor Jones bully her into quitting his engineering class. Instead, she fights back going to the Dean of Engineering and then the President of the university. In this regard, Ginny was fortunate, as most women would not have had the support and friendship of people in significant positions. Nevertheless, she is determined and accomplished, proving both academically and technically that she belongs in the Purdue aeronautical engineering program. This is another characteristic of systemic discrimination that women in science and engineering encountered: they often had to produce superior results compared to their male counterparts.

Stemp provides readers with a map of Purdue University as it looked in 1935. As with the first book, Under Amelia's Wing also includes some of the last photographs of Amelia Earhart, taken during her time at Purdue University. However, there is no information on Amelia Earhart's world flight nor of her disappearance in July, 1937. Readers can  find more information from the Amelia Earhart Collection in the University of Purdue archives. There is no information provided about the novel's cover image but it is from the Purdue University collection, taken in 1936 and shows Amelia Earhart sitting on top of the Lockheed Electra with a group of women aviation students.

The third book in the Ginny Ross series will most likely focus on the war years and should offer a fitting conclusion to her story. .

Book Details:

Under Amelia's Wing by Heather Stemp
Halifax: Nimbus Publishing     2020
253 pp.