Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

There have been quite a few juvenile biographies of Amelia Earhart, many of them quite recent. She is an iconic figure, made legendary by her mysterious disappearance and retains the fascination her contemporaries felt for her. Candace Fleming has written the last biography of Earhart you’ll ever need to buy (unless her body and/or plane is miraculously discovered someday)

The detailed story of Amelia's life is interspersed with a moment-by-moment recounting of her disappearance and the search missions that attempted to find her. In these inserts, we see the excitement, worry, and the many mysterious clues and radio messages that made her tragic disappearance such a huge national event.

The biographical information about Amelia's life show more is detailed and emphasizes her complex personality. Fleming doesn't shy away from Earhart's painful childhood with an alcoholic father, her family's poverty, and her own driving ambition for fame. Controversies over her university grants and public press is also included. She is portrayed sympathetically, but as a real person, not a legend.

Maps, photographs, original documents, quotes from contemporaries, and information on historical events that shaped Earhart's life are sprinkled throughout the text. A detailed bibliography, list of websites, and source notes are also included. I reviewed this from an ARC, so didn't see the photo credits and index, but they were both marked as to be included in the final edition.

Verdict: A required purchase for your biography section - weed your old Earhart biographies and replace them with this title.

ISBN: 9780375841989; Published March 2011; Reviewed from ARC provided by publisher at ALA Midwinter 2011; Purchased for my library show less

Candace Fleming’s story telling gives life into the mysterious story of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance. Amelia Earhart’s childhood was filled with her passion and determination of becoming a pilot. At first Amelia was not so interested into planes until she moves to the United States and is bitten by the flying bug. She works hard to have money to pay for flying lessons and soon she begins to fly on her on which leads to her becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean; until she is lost and never seen again. The accounts of Amelia’s last flight and the attempts to locate her are fascinating. The organization of this book builds suspense and creates tension.

combines with her storytelling expertise to craft an account of Earhart that manages to breathe life into the legendary figure’s mysterious disappearance. Even though the reader knows that Amelia never returned from her fatal flight, the book’s structure and Fleming’s pacing manage to build suspense and create tension. The author intersperses accounts from the viewpoints of the many people concerned about Amelia’s whereabouts with accounts of her early years and her career, allowing the reader to know Amelia as more than a one-dimensional historic figure.

Amelia flies off the page in this biography, the story of her life interlaced with a minute by minute account of the search for her missing plane. Brave and reckless while flying, on the ground she carefully polished her public image. This is a fascinating picture of an adventurer who challenged the boundaries of aviation, and became a role model for women around the world.

Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming is a combination biography and history of the search for Earhart's plane after it went missing over the Pacific in 1937. It looks at both pieces of Amelia Earhart's life with a candid skepticism.

Amelia Earhart, besides being a dare devil pilot, was one of the first modern celebrities. As Fleming explains, the autobiography that (even through my childhood) was taken as canon, was full of the story Earhart wanted remembered — even if details were completely fictional. Fleming isn't trying to discredit Earhart's genuine accomplishments or the tragedy of her disappearance over the Pacific. Rather, she's trying to put the myth into perspective with the facts and the time period in which Earhart lived.

As other show more reviews have mentioned, Amelia Lost isn't a rehash of previous books. I went into reading this book thinking I knew everything there was to know. I was wrong — even about the search and rescue efforts in 1937.

The book includes numerous photographs and copies of materials from Earhart's life. There is also a decent bibliography for readers who want to continue learning about the aviatrix. show less

This is a nice, short audio book, likely intended to be a YA book since it never gets into any negative parts of Amelia Earhart’s life, including her sexuality. Lots of interesting information here, much of it I didn’t know, and, after all, that is why I decided to listen to the book. Adequate narration except for the female narrator speaking male lines as well as the narrator’s interpretation of Amelia’s actual voice. She reads Amelia’s dialogue as a very prissy, feminine character. Given what we have been hearing about Earhart as the book progresses as a strong willed feminist, it seems inconsistent with her personality. Otherwise, a worthy effort.

Daughter, wife, student, pilot, adventurer, early feminist. Amelia Earhart, as depicted in Candace Fleming's spellbinding biography, was all of these things and more. Fleming takes the reader from Earhart's birth in Kansas to her early childhood living with her grandmother, through her painful adolescence living with an alcoholic father, to her driven adulthood and eventual disappearance.This book is generously laced with original photographs, excerpts from letters, report cards, newspaper clippings and maps. The author also provides an extensive bibliography and resources for further research. Although full of facts and information, this book was also an enjoyable read, as Fleming manages to capture a conversational tone which is both show more engaging and endearing. show less