"Flying Higher: A WASP Takes Wing"

On Tuesday, January 27 at 7:00 pm at Bernardsville Public Library, Carol Simon Levin will present “Flying Higher: A WASP Takes Wing.” It's the story of the amazing WASPs, the women airforce service pilots of World War II, told through the eyes of Ann Baumgartner Carl, a Jersey girl who spent her teenage years in Bernardsville and who trained as a WASP. She became the only American woman to test-fly experimental planes during the war and the first woman in the world to fly a jet airplane!

During World War II, more than one thousand women volunteers completed the WASP military pilot training program. Graduating WASPs piloted every kind of military aircraft, tested new and overhauled airplanes (some with defective parts or dangerous reputations), delivered more than 12,000 planes, and flew over 60,000,000 miles (sometimes towing targets that soldiers shot at with live ammunition!) Thirty-eight of them died serving their country. Then they were told that men needed their jobs, and they were dismissed and forgotten. Carol Simon Levin, a Youth Services Librarian, author, storyteller and program presenter based in Bridgewater, NJ, aims to rectify that situation.

Ms. Levin has always been particularly fascinated by the history of technology and women’s history. Whether she is impersonating the woman who helped to build the Brooklyn Bridge, telling the amazing stories of early women in aviation, expanding on the mathematical and artistic possibilities of a simple square, or sharing the story of a dolphin who learned to swim with an artificial tail, she always strives to create exciting programs that engage her audience’s interests and expand their horizons. She is a member of the New Jersey Storytelling Guild, the New Jersey Library Association, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

There is no charge to attend the program, but advance sign-up is requested. Register online at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org and follow the link from Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up.