Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fleming, Candace. 2011.AMELIA LOST: THE LIFE AND DISAPPEARANCE OF AMELIA EARHART. New York: Random House Children’s Books. ISBN 978-0-375-94598-4

PLOT SUMMARY
The disappearance of Amelia Earhart has become a legend that stands the test of time. In Fleming’s book, she attempts to separate the legend from the facts surrounding Amelia’s life and her fateful last flight. Despite the reader knowing that Amelia met her demise on her attempt to fly around the world, the book adds suspense and Fleming uses her storyteller flare to add even more life to this legendary heroine.  Alternate chapters between Earhart’s life and events after her plane is lost create a nice flow for the novel and keep the reader engaged.


CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The book is designed so that the reader travels back in forth into the events before Earhart’s last flight and the life she led beforehand.  Cleverly shaded, a young reader could easily recognize that gray pages are filled with information from after Earhart’s crash, whereas the white pages are part of her life before her final flight.  Each page has a captioned black and white photo which provides visuals for the information presented on the page or information about a timely matter that readers may not know about. The details provided are presented in a way that neither condescends nor water-downs the information. Fleming presents Earhart in a very honest light, detailing the fact that many of the myths surrounding Amelia were created by the famous flyer herself.  As Earhart once admitted, “I must continue to be a heroine in the public eye, otherwise flying opportunities will stop rolling in.” Another credit to this book is the extra elements included within the work. There are maps detailing Amelia’s flights, as well as memorabilia regarding Amelia and life in the mid-1930s.  This book creates an opportunity for someone with even limited knowledge of early aviation to understand all that transpired.

Clearly a well-researched and thought out book, AMELIA LOST includes details from Earhart’s life that goes well beyond the classical stories of Amelia’s tomboy shenanigans and her push for women’s liberation.  This book delves into information that is more than just surface level, which allows the reader to feel as though he is in the cockpit with the famous aviatrix. Any information included that could not be verified was included with a disclaimer that the fact may be faulty. The table of contents is labeled with a date range, so a reader can easily navigate based on the time frame. In addition, a bibliography, source notes, picture credits, and further research areas create a credible biographical frame for the legendary Amelia Earhart. With attractive layouts and unique page design, this book is very inviting. Ultimately, this is a fitting book for such a legendary lady.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
BOOKLIST review: " Drawing on her training as a historian and her considerable writing talents, Fleming (The Great and Only Barnum, 2009) offers a fresh look at this famous aviatrix. Employing dual narratives straightforward biographical chapters alternating with a chilling recounting of Earhart's final flight and the search that followed Fleming seeks to uncover the history in the hype, pointing out numerous examples in which Earhart took an active role in mythologizing her own life.”

Publishers Weekly review: “This honest depiction of Earhart's professional and personal life forms a complete portrait of a complex woman, making her final doomed flight (and a reproduction of a teenager's notebook transcription of what may have been Earhart's last radio transmission) all the more affecting.”

5. CONNECTIONS
There is plenty of information available about Amelia Earhart. Young readers can discover what it feels like to fly through videos online or even a flight in a private airplane.  There are also games available that follow information found in the book: http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/unsolved-mystery-club-amelia-earhart.jsp .

Szabo,Corinne. SKY PIONEER: A PHOTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMELIA EARHART. ISBN 9781426300448

Jerome, Kate Boehm. WHO WAS AMELIA EARHART? ISBN 9780448428567