Biography and Autobiography - Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming

Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming

Summary: Amelia Lost shares the story of the legendary pilot Amelia Earhart who disappeared on July 5, 1937 while trying to circumnavigate the globe.  The story flashes back and forth between the day of her disappearance and other related events through her life beginning from her birth on July 24, 1897 into a middle-class family in Kansas.  Her family consisted younger sister Muriel, her mother and father who supported her greatly in her aviation endeavors.  After attending an air show with her father, she told him that she’d like to fly.  After six months of flying lessons, she decided to buy her first plane. An ex-army instructor taught her stunt flying, but her parents’ divorce in 1925 put her flying career on hold.  She really attracted the attention of the media and was often in magazines and newspapers. The result was an opportunity to become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. This event propelled Amelia into fame providing her with interviews, photographs, magazine covers, product endorsements, newsreels, lectures, and even a book deal (Fleming, 2011, p. 57). George Putnam worked as her publicity manager and promoted her as a famous flier, lecturer, and author. She knew she would need to earn money if she wanted to fly and the publicity funded her dream to fly. She flew across the country solo and back.  She helped to establish the first organization of women pilots in the world, called the Ninety-nines because it started with 99 licensed women pilots. She also accrued altitude and speed records.  Amelia dreamed of an around-the-world flight along the equator.  She originally planned to fly alone, but opted to take along a navigator to assist with the map reading.  The flight started out successfully, but the plane never completed its flight.  Amelia Earhart, and her navigator, Fred Noonan disappeared.  Her plane nor the bodies were ever found.  Her disappearance remains a mystery today. 

My Perspective: She was bold, daring, reckless, confident, and needing to survive.  She was innovative in making a living life on her own terms. Her ultimate passion was to fly, but in order to keep the funds coming she had to have publicity.  George Putnam was her biggest promoter and fan.  He later became her husband.  She married him reluctantly as she did not want to lose her freedom to fly.  However, his efforts to push her name forward resulted in many opportunities.  Initially she made her fame as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.  However, she flew with pilot Bill Stultz, and engine mechanic Lou “Slim” Gordon.  A lesser known fact is that she was just the passenger and not the pilot.  This book provides many insights into the real Amelia Earhart story.  She had become a legend in her own life never disputing any wrong information, but Fleming’s deep research into Earhart’s life will not disappoint you.  Even without the sensationalized version of herself, Amelia Earhart was still an amazing person.  As the Publisher Weekly Review(2011) of the book stated, “This honest depiction of Earhart's professional and personal life forms a complete portrait of a complex woman, making her final doomed flight...all the more affecting.”

Library Application:

1.     Make Paper airplanes

2.     Study Bernoulli’s Principle and Newtons Third Law of Motion http://www.aviation-for-kids.com/Lift.html. 

3.     Make an airfoil (wing) and test in a wind tunnel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrouhCGg9ko

4.     Study women in STEM careers.  See https://www.edutopia.org/article/12-inspiring-stem-books-girls-emelina-minero

 

References:

Fleming, C. (2011). Amelia Lost. New York:  Schwartz & Wade books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc.  

Publisher’s Weekly Review (2011, February 1). [Review of Amelia Lost]. Retrieved from https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-375-84198-9