Amelia Lost: The life and disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming Published by Schwartz & Wade Books, 2011 This book is recommended for young readers from 8 to 14 Lexile Reading Level 930L (MetaMetrics) For a recent “LitBit” assignment, I profiled this book about Amelia Earhart and felt it would be a good one to blog about because of my focus this semester on books for young readers about famous people. This was the second book I’d read recently by Candace Fleming, an award-winning author.
The first thing that attracted me to this book was the cover art. One appreciates the iconic photo of Earhart, but the Art Deco lettering is the real attention-getter. I liked that the book uses this special font, called Electra, throughout. For me, it helped bring the era of Earhart’s accomplishments to life. Another interesting aspect of this book is how the author jumps back and forth between a conventional telling of the events of Amelia’s life leading up to her disappearance and first-person accounts of sailors and radio enthusiasts who were listening for any word of the missing flier. The book opens with the men aboard the Coast Guard cutter Itasca as Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan are expected to land at tiny Howland Island in the Pacific. The fliers never arrived and were never seen again. Kirkus Reviews, which named this book one of the 12 Best Nonfiction Children’s Books of 2011, calls this “impeccably researched”, “appealing”, and “stunning”. I admired author Fleming’s passion for the truth. She writes that Earhart, “left behind layer upon layer of myth and legend”, but the author says she spent “two years…chipp(ing) away at those layers” (p. viii-ix). One example of this is found in the prologue where Fleming describes a story that Earhart told about the first time she saw an airplane (p. viii). Fleming could’ve merely repeated the story since it was a first-person account by Earhart herself, but the author did some digging and proved it couldn’t be true. I loved the photos the author uses to illustrate her story including pictures of the young Earhart and her family and photos that compare her to the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh. Fleming explains that this similarity is one that Earhart’s husband George Palmer Putnam was more than happy to exploit. The last page of the book reproduces a snippet of a letter in Earhart’s own handwriting where she writes that she understood the risks and danger involved in flying. There’s also a quote by Earhart’s friend and benefactor Eleanor Roosevelt who told reporters, “I am sure Amelia’s last words were ‘I have no regrets’”(p. 110). It is a poignant end to a fascinating story…a story still awaiting that final chapter when Earhart and Noonan are found and the mystery of their disappearance is finally solved. I really couldn’t find fault with this book at all. Fleming provides detailed source notes, picture credits, and a section called “Finding Amelia on the Web” (p. 113) where she provides links to online transcripts of Earhart’s radio transmissions and digitized images of Earhart’s diaries, letters, and other manuscripts from Purdue University’s collection. I liked that the author personalized her bibliography and explained some of her choices including this one where she writes, “Providing a different perspective of historic events, as well as adding to my understanding of Earhart’s marital relationship, were these books written by her husband, George Palmer Putnam” (p. 112). Fleming doesn’t beatify her subject as so many biographers are apt to do. Earhart was a flawed individual (as are we all) and Fleming points that out. In her chapter titled “First Flight”, Fleming writes about the interactions between Earhart and her flight instructor and mentor Neta Snook. Snook was concerned about Earhart’s overconfidence, carelessness, and mistakes and thought that Earhart may have been too focused on “publicity and…looking good” (p. 39). Fleming backs that observation up with a quote from Earhart’s sister as well. For anyone searching for a hero, particularly a brave woman pioneer in a man’s field, Amelia Earhart is an excellent choice. There are many well-written books that tell her story including those she penned herself. For young readers, there’s a book in the acclaimed, “Who Was…” series by Kate Boehm Jerome, illustrated by David Cain. For those very young readers ages 3 to 6, there’s an Earhart book in the “I am…” series by Brad Meltzer. For readers of all ages interested in a well-researched book about a fascinating 20th century icon, one need look no further than Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming. Resources: Fleming, C. (2011) Amelia lost: The life and disappearance of Amelia Earhart. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books. Kirkus Reviews. (2011, January 1). {Review of the book Amelia Lost: The life and disappearance of Amelia Earhart]. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/candace-fleming/amelia-lost/ Lexile Framework for Reading. (2017). MetaMetrics, Inc. Retrieved from https://fab.lexile.com/book/details/9780449811696/
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