I love reading about women aviators and books that explore what women were doing in a time where we are taught that women were at home running families. Women were never just at home running families! Knowing that women have been flying almost as long as there have been airplanes should not be surprising, yet given how tough it was for WASP to get the recognition they deserve, any aviators prior to the 1940s definitely are under served. Except Amelia Earhart, though it is questionable if she would have ever been recognized if she had not disappeared.

That being said, this book focuses on too many aviators of the time that it becomes weighed down with facts and numbers rather than following a few aviators to create a narrative. It reads as more of a profile of the aviators rather than a narrative of the time period.

I've been interested in the stories of female aviators for awhile now and have already read a few nonfiction and historical fiction books about the early days of aviation. Sky Girls, published in 2002 as The Powder Puff Derby of 1929: The First All Women's Transcontinental Air Race, is a pretty comprehensive look at the race and its participants.

The book is certainly thorough with making sure each racer is covered throughout the book rather than just focusing in on a few. Even though I was familiar with some of the aviators beforehand, it was a little hard to keep track of everyone. I would have loved to have a cast of characters list at the beginning with a brief description of their background so I could flip back and forth when I couldn't remember who was who. However, I consider this only a slight problem because I would much rather have a well-researched book that goes into a lot of detail than a brief overview of the race.

I would say about 2/3 of the book covers the race itself while the last 1/3 goes into detail about the lives of the aviators afterward. I came to really love the Will Rogers newspaper column snippets as it provided an interesting view from a spectator's perspective. In general, the author did a good job including background info about the social climate during that time period and other aviation historical facts both before and after the race. There are a good amount of photos included in the book although because I was reading an advance digital copy, the photos were grayed out and I was unable to view them. But given I saw all the spaces and captions designated for the pictures, I think most readers will be pleased at the amount.

I would definitely recommend this book if you are interested in aviation and/or nonfiction books about women doing extraordinary things. It was a fascinating read and I'm glad this part of history has been preserved for future generations.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for allowing me to read a free advance digital copy! All views expressed are my honest opinion.

Going into this book the only women pilot I could tell you was Amelia Earhart and mainly just the last few years of her flying career before she tragically went missing.

Now I know about so many other amazing women and how America's aviation revolution really started and what helped fuel it.
In 1929 A Cross-Country air race happened that showed both men and women competing in different areas. The race eventually became known as the powder-puff derby but that didn't take away any of the amazing achievements that the women completed during the race or how so many of them ended up rising to some level of fame.

Some of the women mentioned in this book.
Pancho Barnes (Florence Lowe)
Louise Thaden
Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout
Neva Finlay
Thea Rasche
Phoebe Fairgrave
Edith Magalis Foltz (Stearns)

Overall I really loved this non-fiction book. Getting to learn about the cross-country air race that so many women competed in was amazing. I loved seeing so many women empowered especially during this time in history. They were able to get sponsorships and had their family's supporters. I also found it fascinating how many of them were married to pilots who had helped them learn how to fly. The women also had to know how to repair there own planes and how to take care of them, which is something not typically talked about or allowed during this time period as well. I loved seeing so many rebellious women kicking butt and showing that anything was possible.

I now really want to find books about each of these women to learn more about them, especially Thea Rasche, Edith Magalis Foltz and Pancho Barnes because they absolutely fascinate me and I want to know more about there careers outside of this race.

The map in this book is really great! I loved how it showed each race stop and how far they had already flown and how far they still needed to go. (I think this could work great for teachers to plan lessons around possibly?)

We also get to see little snippets of what Will Roger's said about the race and his support for the women's race in general. That was really fascinating to me and something I loved being able to tell other family members about who remember hearing Rogers on programs in their childhood.

The author did an amazing job researching about these women and their attempts at making and some of achieving history at a time when many women didn't work, let alone pilot planes! Very interesting and full of information that I had never heard.

And who won? Well I won’t name names but she logged 2700 miles over 9 days with 20 hours, 19 minutes and 4 seconds of flying time. Think on that during your next coast to coast flight. At least these women didn’t have to battle check in lines, pat downs and irate fellow passengers along the way. What they did was help pave the way for the women who followed them including astronaut Linda Godwin who took Louise Thaden’s flying helmet on a mission into space and Eileen Collins who took racer Bobbi Trout’s pilot certificate – signed by Orville Wright – along with her.

The year is 1929, and on the eve of America's Great Depression, nineteen gutsy and passionate pilots soared above the glass ceiling in the very first female cross-country air race. Armed with grit and determination, they crossed thousands of miles in propeller-driven airplanes to defy the naysayers who would say it cannot - not should not - be done. From the indomitable Pancho Barnes to the infamous Amelia Earhart, Sky Girls chronicles a defining and previously forgotten moment when some of the first women pilots took their rightful place in the open skies. For a country on the brink of defining change, they would become symbols of hope, daring, and the unstoppable American spirit. And for generations to come, their actions would pave the way for others to step into the brave unknown and learn to fly.

Sky Girls is a reprint of the 2002 release The Powder Puff Derby of 1929: The First All Women's Transcontinental Air Race. Early aviation has always interested me, especially when it comes to women pioneers in the field. This history book is a decent entry to get you get interested in the topic. It covers the entire length of the race from California to Ohio and gives us a taste of the pilots involved including Amelia Earhart. Personally, I wish the author's narrative followed a few of the pilots more closely rather than jumping around between the entire group of racers involved. There are also a lot of photos and maps included (or at least there are supposed to be since the ARC mostly just had blank spaces representing where those are supposed to appear in the final copy which definitely made me feel a little out of the loop). Overall, my favorite aspect of this book is that at the end it features more in-depth profiles on all of the racers by concisely going beyond the narrow scope of the race. I also liked the fact that the author, a pilot herself, also goes a little further in the history of female aviation pioneers by touching on their involvement in WWII, commercial airlines, and space. By the way, she even features a profile of Jerrie Mock, the first woman to fly solo around the world in 1964 completing Amelia Earhart's goal. She was awarded the Federal Aviation Agency Gold Medal by President Johnson for her achievements. Even cooler yet, she was a local central Ohioan from Newark.