Kate Boehm Jerome

Who Was Amelia Earhart? by Kate Boehm Jerome is a wonderful book about this great lady in a time when women were just beginning to stand on their own two feet, she is flying! This is a wonderful story of a strong willed and level headed girl and her goal to be more than someone who sits at home and makes babies. She was a doer. She had a very interesting life and this book tells all kinds of personal details history books would leave out. Great book for any age.

This series is incredibly popular with the children at my library (and elsewhere as well) so I've been trying out a few of them. This was my first "Who Was" (rather than "Who Is") title and the first one where I didn't really know much about the subject going into it.

I found this chapter book biography of Amelia Earhart fascinating. Previously I had only known the big highlights of Earhart's story (first female piloted solo trip across the Atlantic Ocean and the tragic mystery of her show more disappearance while attempting to fly around the world). Through this book, I learned about her early life and her other work as a World War I nurse's aide, caring for children in poverty, and so on. Later in life, she cashed in on her famous name by giving speeches, writing articles, and designing her own fashion line. Throughout, she remained an independent woman interested in promoting the rights of all women.

Like with other books in this series, the illustrations in this title were very basic black-and-white line drawings -- practically sketches. However, I think the maps will be useful for young readers as well as the illustrations of the way planes looked over the years. The book ends with a bibliography and timelines of Earhart's life and of the world during her lifetime. show less

Occasionally, I get asked for biographies. Usually by kids who have a school assignment. I don protective gear and trudge back to the last shelf of the juvenile nonfiction. I close my eyes and gingerly snatch a few shabby volumes off the shelf, shake off the dust and spiders, and hand them to gloomy-eyed children, who meander slowly away, looking with disgust at my offerings.

In other words, our biography section is sadly outdated. But, I don't really get enough call for biographies to show more justify updating it at this point. Even if I had the money. Which I don't.

But I do occasionally have kids who actually, *gasp*, like to read biographies. One of them asked me if we had any of the "Who Was..." series. Of course, we didn't. But I borrowed one from another library to see if they were a possibility for that far-off time when we do update the biography section.

They definitely are. This particular volume, a life of Amelia Earhart, has a breezy narrative style with enough tidbits and stories to hold a reader's interest, as well as enough facts for a school report. I learned quite a few new things about Earhart myself, including her career in fashion design and the fact that she had a long hiatus from flying while she was dealing with financial difficulties. The illustrations break up the story nicely, although they're not particularly fascinating on their own, and the text is a good, readable size.

The illustrations include a map or two and there are also several inset pages on the Wright Brothers, the aviation industry, etc. A timeline and bibliography are included at the back. And the book is - ta dum ta dum - 106 pages long. This is VERY important, because 99% of school reports involving biographies require something at least 100 pages.

Verdict: This looks like an excellent, and very useful series. Recommended by one of my young patrons and now myself! I'll put this on the list for that hypothetical time when I weed and update the biography section.

ISBN: 978-0448428567; Published November 2002 by Grosset and Dunlap; Borrowed from the library show less

Summary:

This chapter book about Amelia Earhart is a biography of her life, accomplishments and struggles from birth to death. It starts off with a brief introduction about her main accomplishment that she is most noted and recognized for, which is for being the first women pilot. Then the story begins back at her birth and throughout the book tells about Amelia Earhart in chronological order. The biography includes pictures and information pertaining to her childhood, adolescence, career show more life, becoming a pilot, her heroism, being a businesswoman in the aviation industry and her overall accomplishments and struggles. In the back of the book there is also a timeline of her life and of the world at the same time. This book pretty much tells the reader everything they need to know about Amelia Earhart’s life.

Comments (opinions/arguments):

This particular book is part of a “Who Was…” series about different important people in history. I really like this particular one about Amelia Earhart and the series itself because they are easy reader chapter books with a lot of important and relevant information for young readers. I really like that even though it’s a chapter book, it incorporates a lot of wonderful illustrations that correspond well with the writing. I also like that the book incorporates different chapters about different time periods in her life and an overall timeline in the back of the book. This book would work really well for a child who had to do a research project. For a short chapter book, this book offers a ton of information from the time Amelia was born to the time that she dies. I also like that it goes into great detail about her accomplishments, but also points out the struggles that she endured throughout her career. The message that this shows children is that you can accomplish anything no matter what the obstacle is. I like that this message is prevalent even though the main point of the book is to offer information about a historical figure. I also like that they portray Amelia as a hero because this book could offer children guidance and a good role model to help them motivate themselves to succeed. show less