The Roaring Twenty

Adventure, excitement, and fearlessness take wing in the dramatic true story of the first Women's Cross-Country Air Derby. Readers will thrill to the feats of ''the roaring 20,'' the daredevil pilots who pioneered women's aviation in the 2800-mile race from Santa Monica, California, to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1929.

This cross-country odyssey was the first of its kind: nine days of grueling endurance that was dismissively dubbed the ''Powder Puff Derby'' by the press. Yet the American public was captivated. They already knew and loved Amelia Earhart, and soon warmed to such characters as the cigar-smoking stunt flyer Florence Pancho Barnes, former wing-walker Phoebe Omlie, and New York society rebel Opal Kunz.

Relive the intense competition and the death-defying dangers: stormy weather, mechanical challenges, typhoid fever, and even the suspicion of sabotage. Superbly illustrated with 50 evocative duotone photographs, and featuring a detailed National Geographic map of the route, this is a book to capture the imagination and dreams of young girls from coast to coast.

• Ages 10 and up
• Hardcover
• 112 pages
• 7 1/8'' x 9 1/8'''
• © 2006