Black Dove White Raven: A Historical YA in a Less-Explored Setting

The last time I visited my agent in her old offices, she handed me this books off her shelves and told me "read it, you'll love it." She knows me well...

Black Dove White Raven by Elizabeth Wein is a historical young adult novel about friendship, the joy of flying, and the importance of finding a safe place to call home.

The two main characters, Emilia and Teo, are being raised side by side by their mothers - partners in an aviation team called Black Dove (Rhoda), White Raven (Delia) - until a tragic accident leaves Emilia's mother raising them alone. To honor her late partner's wishes and raise her son in a country free of discrimination, Em's mother moves them all to Ethiopia.

Wein tells the story through a combination of flashbacks in school stories and fictional tales that the two main characters write together. Readers see the world through Emilia and Teo's eyes, including the racism in America in the 1930's contrasted with other countries.

This is a profoundly feminist book in several ways - it depicts women trying to make their own way in the world in the male-dominated world of aviation. It shows how women - and girls - fight for their dreams but also support and love one another. Even only shown in flashbacks the friendship between the original Black Dove and White Raven was lovingly drawn.

It's also a good depiction of allyship, though Teo stands on his own - first in an attempt to feel invisible in America, then in living in a country where he fits in and can forge his own path to the skies. Each of the characters is fully realized and jumps off the page - in addition to the secondary viewpoint character of Teo, there are too many characters of color to name (a doctor, an emperor, soliders...) and many are based on historical figures. Previously, I had no clue of the rich history of Ethiopia prior to the war with Italy, or that the country had never been colonized prior to Italy's invasion.

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The relationship between the mothers definitely read as queer-coded to me, in a way that women in queer relationships lived them during this time period. The book starts with a slower burn, but picks up, and while it reads a little younger YA at the beginning, Wein doesn't shy away from the realities of war (such as mustard gas) . Fans of historical fiction that doesn't take place in the (sometimes over-explored) European setting will enjoy it.