Who Were the Tuskegee Airmen?

About the Author

Sherri L. Smith is the author of nine award-winning fiction and nonfiction books for young people including the 2021 Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Award winner The Blossom and the Firefly, and the California Book Awards Gold Medalist, Flygirl. Her novels appear on multiple state reading lists and have been named Amelia Bloomer, Junior Library Guild, Children’s Book Council, Southern California Independent Booksellers Award, and American Library Association Best Books for Young People selections. She also writes comics, including Wonder Woman, Bart Simpson Comics, and James Cameron’s Avatar. Sherri holds a certificate in the Art of Archetypal Fairy Tale Analysis from the Assisi Institute, and a certificate in Enchantivism from Pacifica Graduate Institute, where she is currently studying Applied Mythology. Enchantivism is a form of “activism for introverts” that uses deep storytelling, mythology, dreams and the environment to enact positive change in the world. Sherri currently teaches in the MFA in Children’s Writing Program at Hamline University. She has also taught creative writing at Goddard College and was the 2021 Mina Hohenburg Darden Visiting Professor at Old Dominion University. Her new nonfiction book with Elizabeth Wein is American Wings: Chicago’s Pioneering Aviators and the Race for Equality in the Sky (Putnam). Her new graphic novel is Pearl (Graphix/Scholastic), with art by Christine Norrie.

Jake Murray is an Illustrator from Columbus, Ohio who specializes in sci-fi and fantasy art for the publishing, gaming, and advertising markets.