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.

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

The Hiding Place is a moving account of a Dutch family's work in the underground to save Jews during the Holocaust. It is considered a classic in Christian literature today.

Cornelia Ten Boom was the youngest daughter of Casper ten Boom and Cornelia Johanna Arnolda Luitingh. Corrie as she came to be called, was born on April 15, 1892. The ten Boom family was comprised of three older surviving children; Elizabeth who was called Betsie, Willem, and Arnolda Johanna known as Nollie. The ten Boom family belonged to the Dutch Reformed church and were very devout.

Strongly believing that the world should know the story of what happened in Holland, Corrie wrote about her family's experiences in The Hiding Place. In the book, the story begins with her family's party celebrating the 100th anniversary of their watchmaking and repair shop located in Haarlem. The shop had been founded by her grandfather Willem ten Boom. It is 1937, only a few years before the horror that will soon consume Europe and come to be known as the Holocaust. Corrie is forty-five years old, her older sister Betsie is fifty-two.

In celebration of their anniversary, the shop and family home begins filling with bouquets of flowers from friends and patrons. In addition to Nollie and Willem attending, both of whom now have their own homes, the family is visited by many people including the mayor of Haarlem, the postman and policemen.

Soon talk at the party turns to the worsening situation in Germany with the arrival of Willem who is accompanied by a dazed and injured young Jewish man. Willem, who runs a home for elderly Jews in Hilversum tells Corrie and her family that the man, Herr Gutlieber whose lower face is badly burned was set on fire by boys in Munich. He managed to flee Germany on a milk truck, arriving this morning in Hilversum.

Corrie remembers that Willem had been studying what was going on in Germany for years. In 1927 he wrote about the unprecedented "contempt for human life" that was growing in the country. He noted the German clockmakers who were suddenly and mysteriously no longer open for business and that they were all Jewish.

There are more signs that things in Germany are deteriorating when Corrie's father hires a young German apprentice named Otto to work at the shop. A member of the Hitler Youth, Otto comes only once to listen to Corrie's family's nightly reading of the scriptures. The Old Testament, according to Otto, "is the Jews' 'Book of Lies' ". Soon the ten Booms learn of other disturbing events. Otto's landlady discovers a large knife in his bed. But it is Otto's cruel treatment of the old clockmender, Christoffels that moves Corrie's father to fire him. Willem reveals that Germany is teaching its young people not to value the elderly who they consider to "have no value to the state."

War comes to Holland in 1940 with the invasion of the country by Germany. For five days the country's army attempts to fight off the Nazis but eventually they are overwhelmed and surrender, with the Queen fleeing to England.

At first life in occupied Holland is little changed except for the late curfew, the presence of German soldiers, and the takeover of the Dutch press which prints German propaganda. At night Corrie and her family listen to the aerial dogfights between the English and German planes, as Germany uses Holland as a launching point for the bombing of England.

But gradually the true horror of the occupation begins to creep into daily life. Minor attacks on Dutch Jews grow into bolder attacks and outright discrimination. Parks, libraries, restaurants and theatres all ban Jews who are now required to wear the six point Jewish star on their clothing. People begin to disappear, as evidenced by the unclaimed watches in the ten Boom shop.

Corrie and Betsie and their father begin to discuss how they might have to help their Jewish neighbours. That chance comes much sooner than expected, in November of 1941. One day Corrie and Betsie watch as German soldiers ransack Weil's Furriers, ordering Mr. Weil out of his store at gunpoint, ransacking their apartment and stealing their furs. Needing to find a safe place for Mr. Weil and make sure his wife knows not to return home from Amsterdam, Corrie takes the train to Willem in Hilversum. With the help of Willem's son Kik, they find a safe place for the Weils.

As the situation for Dutch Jews worsens, Corrie and her family become increasingly involved in helping them. And their efforts of resistance do not go unnoticed. On Sunday, May 10, 1942, Peter, who is the organist at the Dutch Reformed church in Velsen, plays an inspiring rendition of the Dutch national anthem, Wilhelmus, which has been forbidden by the Nazis. He is arrested in the evening. Each evening, the ten Booms found Dutch Jews making their way to their alley door, all in need of a hiding place from the Nazis. Hoping to get help from Willem, Corrie is told that he now is being watched all the time and that it is better if she seeks out her own resources to help those coming to her. 

Needing ration cards for the Jews who come to the Beje, Corrie seeks out Fred Koornstra who used to read the electric meter at the Beje. As the needs grow, Corrie begins to realize that they are friends with half of Haarlem: nurses and clerks and people in almost all the businesses. She would trust God to lead her to the people who could help. But the real break comes when Kik takes her to a meeting of the "underground" There "Pickwick" whose real name was Herman Sluring, introduces Corrie to a man, whom she only ever knew as Mr. Smit - the name used by all members of the underground - who told her she needed a secret room. This "Mr. Smit" would turn out to be one of Europe's finest architects and it was he who built the "hiding place" in the ten Boom's home.

As the hunt for Holland's Jews intensifies, Corrie and her family find they are taking more and more risks. Soon this dangerous work will cost some their freedom, others, their lives. Their faith in God and his providence are their guiding light through the darkest of times.

Discussion

The Hiding Place is much more than just a recounting of one family's experiences during the Nazi occupation of Holland. It is much more than a memoir of Dutch resistance. It is a testament to Christian faith acted upon in a time of great evil. Corrie and Betsie were determined to follow God's will in everything in their lives, sometimes at great cost to themselves and those they loved.

Corrie became an integral part of the Dutch underground, obtaining ration cards, helping Jews to safe houses and even allowing the Beje to undergo renovations creating a secret room. Willem was involved in hiding Jews, along with his son Kik. There was never any question in Corrie and her family's minds as to whether they would help their Jewish neighbours. Service was already an integral part of their lives. It was only a matter of how. Their Christian faith demanded nothing less.

The ten Boom family's life was framed and informed entirely by their Christian faith. Casper ten Boom read scripture to the family at 8:30 in the morning before beginning his work in the watch shop and at night before bed, asking "God's blessing on us through the night." Their mother visited the sick and the poor, "cooking and sewing for the needy in the neighborhood...". Every event in their lives was informed by their Dutch Reformed Protestant faith. For example,  Corrie accompanied her mother who was visiting a young mother whose newborn baby had just died. This experience of death haunted Corrie and she became so distraught that later at home she was unable to eat dinner. Her fear was for the death of her father, Mama and her sister Betsie. Her father uses this moment to impart some of his faith and wisdom, reminding Corrie that he gives her the train ticket just before boarding, when travelling to Amsterdam. "...And our wise Father in heaven knows when we're going to need things, too. Don't run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need -- just in time."

L to R: Nollie, Corrie, Casper, Cornelia, Willem and Betsie

Life was lived in service to others in the ten Boom household and Corrie's mother and aunts were exemplary in that regard. Corrie mentions the numerous ways her mother and aunts served their friends and neighbours. Her mother is described as having knit "caps and baby dresses", "composing cheery messages for shutins" When Tante Jans is diagnosed with diabetes, then a terminal illness, she decides to spend what time is left for her, organizing a center for the soldiers, writing and fund raising. When her disease progresses and she has only weeks left, Tante Jans is distraught because she believes she has not done enough in her life to merit salvation. Her worry shows how important service to others was in the ten Boom family and had been for generations.

Perhaps Corrie's birth on Good Friday, April 15, 1892 was a sign of what was to come. She was not expected to survive but she did and grew up to be a woman with strong Christian principles. During an aerial battle over their city, Corrie experienced a premonition in the form of a vision about her family.

While praying for their country as the Nazi invasion began, Corrie experienced this following terrifying vision. "Then as I watched, a kind of odd, old farm wagon -- old fashioned and out of place in the middle of a city -- came lumbering across the square pulled by four enormous black horses. To my surprise I saw that I myself was sitting in the wagon. And Father too! And Betsie! There were many others, some strangers, some friends. I recognized Pickwick and Toos, Willem and young Peter. All together we were slowly being drawn across the square behind those horses. We couldn't get off the wagon, that was the terrible thing. It was taking us away -- far away, I felt -- but we didn't want to go...." At the time Corrie had no idea what the vision could possibly mean, but years later, when she, her sister Betsie, Peter, Nollie, Pickwick and her father are taken away after a raid on her house, Corrie remembers the dream. It was a warning, perhaps to help her prepare for what was to come.

As the occupation continued, Corrie was deeply conflicted as to how they would work in the underground given the rumours about the types of resistance involved. "The rumors tended to get more spectacular with each repetition. But always they featured things we believed were wrong in the sight of God. Stealing, lying, murder. Was this what God wanted in times like these? How should a Christian act when evil was in power?"

It is something that Corrie and her family struggled with as the months went by. After a search by German soldiers for young men for forced work, the family argued over whether it was permissible to lie to protect someone. While Nollie believed that "God honors truth-telling with perfect protection!" as her daughter Corky had just done. But Corrie is not so certain.

The title of Corrie's autobiography is more than just a reference to the secret room in the Beje. It is also a spiritual reference, one Corrie did not realize until she was in prison. Watching ants hiding in the wall of her cell Corrie understands the significance of having a special safe place in Christ. "And suddenly I realized that this too was a message, ...For I too had a hiding place when things were bad. Jesus was this place, the Rock cleft for me..." Later on while suffering from edema in the hospital at Ravensbruck, Corrie wonders what if....and then remembers, "There are no 'ifs' in God's kingdom. I could hear her soft voice saying it. His timing is perfect. His will is our hiding place. Lord Jesus, keep me in your will...."

This touching account is well worth reading, not only for the heroic efforts of the ten Booms, but more for the remarkable spiritual gems contained within.

To learn more about the ten Boom family The Corrie ten Boom House website (https://www.corrietenboom.com/en/family-ten-boom) has many interesting details.

ten Book family image: https://renovare.org/articles/this-too-is-in-his-hands

Book Details:

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
Crossing Classics
228 pp.

Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator

Amelia Earhart and the mystery of her tragic attempt to fly around the world still captures the imagination of people everywhere. The Legend of the Lost Aviator presents Amelia's life story beginning with her childhood. Her growing up years were spent in Atchinson, Kansas in her grandparents home. Amelia and her sister, Muriel rode horses, went bike riding, and played tennis and basketball. They also loved to explore the banks of the Missouri River and to pretend to travel all over the world. This latter pastime was to foreshadow Amelia life.

After her beloved grandmother's death, Amelia's family moved frequently, meaning that she attended many different high schools. Her parents eventually separated. Muriel went to college in Toronto, Ontario, while Amelia studied near Philadelphia.

In 1917, with World War I raging, Amelia decide to become a nurses aide and moved to Toronto. Her interest in flying was piqued by a visit to a military air field with her father in 1920. A ride in a plane did exactly the opposite her father was hoping - she

It was unusual for a woman to learn to fly but Amelia managed to take lessons from Neta Snook, a female pilot and instructor. She quickly purchase her first plane, a yellow Kinner Airster, which was a small, very light plane. Although Amelia had several crashes, she remained undaunted.

For a while Amelia settled down to a somewhat normal life, working as a social worker helping immigrant families. But in 1928 Amelia received a phone call that would profoundly change her life and set in motion the events that would lead to tragedy nine years later. George Putnam, a publisher, promoter and Amelia's future husband,invited her to be a part of a flight from Trepassey, Newfoundland to Southampton, England and so become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. Although she would not actually fly the plane, Amelia agreed. After this success, Amelia was inspired to not only promote flying as a means of transportation, but to undertake her own daring flights. These flights became longer, set records and became riskier. The last of those flights would be her attempt to fly with Fred Noonan, around the world in 1937. She never completed the flight and exactly what happened to her and Fred remains a mystery to this day.

Canadian award-winning author, Shelley Tanaka has written an engaging account of Amelia Earhart's life and adventures. The Legend of the Lost Aviator is filled with photographs of Amelia, her family and her husband, the planes she flew and of her life promoting flying. Tanaka used Amelia Earhart's own writings as the source for her writing, capturing the determined spirit of Amelia as the world's premier female aviator.  Accompanying Tanaka's well written text are the rich,colourful illustrations of Canadian artist, David Craig. The back of this book contains a list of books, articles and websites for further research.

For more information about Amelia Earhart readers are directed to the Smithsonian Magazine's online website. 

Those who are interested in a picture book devoted to Amelia's flight across the Atlantic should read Robert Burleigh's Night Flight.

Amelia on her aircraft before departing Miami, 1937

Book Details:

Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator
New York: Abrams Books For Young Readers 2008
48 pp.