#26 - Amelia Earhart the Legend of the Lost Aviator

Amelia Earhart the Legend of the Lost Aviator

Written by: Shelley Tanaka

Illustrated by: David Craig

Scholastic

2008

48 pages

Nonfiction

            This book tells the true story of Amelia Earhart from the beginning of her life to the mysterious end. It tells about Amelia’s growing interest in planes and how she began school. She didn’t always know what she wanted to do. When she first started school she went to study things like automobile repair and medical studies. Amelia still thought about airplanes though, and her Dad started paying for her to take very expensive flying lessons. Soon Amelia got her first plane, and it was so light that she could drag it around by the tail. Amelia crashed many times but she still continued flying. Amelia worked as a social worker to pay her bills and pay for her expensive hobby. The book goes on to talk about Amelia’s famous adventures. She flew across the Atlantic Ocean as a passenger and again solo. She was the first female to achieve this. The book ends with the mystery of her disappearance on the trip she was supposed to make around the world.

            The illustrations are a mix of black and white photographs and painted pictures. The photographed pictures take up a whole page and are often used as backgrounds. The photographs are used to support the subject of the text. The painted pictures are very realistic and bring some color to the story. The paintings are all surrounded with borders and stay separated from the text. The text is mostly formal, but it sometimes blends into the photographs.

            I would use this book in an upper elementary classroom from third grade and up.  It would be a great book to use in March for Woman’s history month. The teacher could use the book to introduce Amelia and the students could do further research.