Written by Brad Meltzer
Illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos
An excellent addition to the series “Ordinary People Change the World” is this new biography about Amelia Earhart. Written in the first person, it is like a comfortable conversation between two kids.
It is exciting to read about Amelia’s early experiments with ramps and roller coaster carts in her grandmother’s back yard. She tells about her first ride aboard an airplane at a county fair which is something many young readers will have seen or experienced.
She talks about all the different jobs she had to do while trying to raise enough money for her flight lessons. The illustrations are great fun as we see the small cartoon version of Amelia driving a huge truck, taking stenography notes and posing as a photographer.
The text is sparse and accessible for beginning readers. It will invite them in and encourage them to keep reading this book as well as many others in the set.
Her recollection about the flight lessons is valuable as she tells her readers that she never was the best or fastest. Instead she was the one who worked longest and hardest at her lessons.
This is an excellent inspirational book for all young readers, but especially for young girls who might think their options are limited.
Core curriculum standards in the area of history, biography and literacy can be practiced and strengthened with this book. Readers will love being able to see real photographs of Amelia at the end of the book. It adds realism to the biography experience and shows what the early airplanes looked like. These photographs may provide a springboard for further research and perhaps even career dreams.
Title: I Am Amelia Earhart- Author: Brad Meltzer
- Illustrator: Christopher Eliopoulos
- Publisher: Dial Book for Young Readers, 2014
- Reviewer: Elizabeth Swartz
- Format: Hardcover, 40 pages
- ISBN: 978-0-8037-4082-2
- Genre: Biography, history, nonfiction
- Grade level: K to 3
- Extras: photographs
