Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming

"To her father she wrote: 'Hooray for the last grand adventure. I wish I had won, but it was worthwhile anyway.' To her mother, she said: 'My life as really been very happy, and I didn't mind contemplating its end in the midst of it.'"

Amelia wrote these letters to her parents before a transatlantic flight. These words suggested that Amelia had contemplated her life and was satisfied with her accomplishments thus far. By the time these letters were penned, Amelia was already a national hero. Fleming uses a massive collection of interviews, letters, and media clippings to detail the life of Amelia Earhart from birth to disappearance. Intermittent with this prescribed biographical approach, Fleming includes several pages that write of the recovery effort for Earhart's plane. These beautifully written and fascinating stories create a refreshing pace to the tale of Earhart's journey. At the beginning of the book, the rescue story begins with Earhart's failed attempt to refuel in the Pacific Ocean. As the life of Earhart progresses, the recovery effort is documented by actual accounts of radio transmissions received by ordinary citizens. Several American citizens may have interpreted the last words even spoken by Earhart as she was lost at sea with Fred Noonan. The majority of the text does contain information that could be accessed from any biographical source of Amelia Earhart. Fleming distinguishes her written tribute to Earhart by providing the varied textual elements and splicing the linear narrative with the failed search effort. Some readers will be able to immediately identify the story of Amelia Earhart, but Fleming includes these readers by enhancing the text with letters written by Earhart and interviews with family members and friends. The personal aspect of her writing brings the reader close to the heroine's actual life amidst celebrity.

Fleming purposefully provides the reader with images and captioned text boxes that activate essential knowledge to student understanding. I find this feature of the text to be extremely appropriate for young readers. Objects like radio transmitters and planes that existed almost a century ago are extremely difficult to imagine from only text. The pictures are framed like early twentieth century photographs, and thus authenticate the biographical account. On one spread, the Morse code is produced for the reader. The implications for this form of communication in the classroom are especially interesting. I found the book overall to be a successful at maintaining interest in a subject that I am familiar with. The magnificent and iconic status that Earhart reached in her lifetime is inspiring to anyone with a dream and an imagination. The gender roles that Earhart battled are motivational to the next generation of girls who will succeed and shape the landscape of our future civilization.

The following video is from the Smithsonian Museum. Dorothy Cochrane, curator of the National Air and Space Museum, gives the introduction.