We Own the Sky
by Rodman Philbrick
Intermediate, Middle School     Scholastic    208 pp.         g
9/22     978-1-338-73629-8     $18.99

Twelve-year-old Davy Michaud and his older sister Josephine face dim prospects in 1924 Biddeford, Maine, after their mother’s burial. A lung ailment caused by work in a cotton mill led to her death; their father died years before in a mill accident. Then their mother’s cousin, famous aviatrix Ruthie Reynard, comes to the rescue, inviting the two to join her flying circus for the summer. Davy and Jo find their places in the diverse circus community, but it’s that diversity—French Canadians, Italians, Jews, Blacks, Irish, and Catholics—that draws the attention of the Ku Klux Klan, which has already attracted one hundred thousand followers in Maine. Since the small Black population of Maine provides few targets, the northern Klan attacks immigrants, especially French Canadians who have come to work in the mills. The tale balances the soaring dreams and courage of early female flyers (including Jo’s new success as a wing walker) and the basest prejudices of the Klan. Philbrick’s fast-paced, action-packed narrative includes deeper layers of difficult history that still resonate today. Pair with Karen Hesse’s verse novel Witness (rev. 11/01), also about the Maine Klan. An author’s note and suggestions for further reading are appended.

From the November/December 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.