Reviews for Amelia Earhart: Young Aviator

The average rating for Amelia Earhart: Young Aviator based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-05-08 00:00:00 Bill Boden One of the better written COFA books. I got wrapped up in it, as an adult, and felt like we got a wonderful glimpse of Amelia Earhart's personality and spirit as well as her many accomplishments. I would love to read her autobiography one day. I had tears in my eyes as I finished this. That said, an early chapter book supposedly focused on Amelia's childhood and targeted to young children, I'm not sure it is entirely successful. Only about 1/3 of it is about Amelia's childhood. The chapters on Amelia's childhood are engaging and provide a glimpse into her courage and ingenuity, her belief that girls should be able to do what boys can, her sense justice and compassion, and her early interest in the "Flying Machine" she saw at the World's Fair as a young girl. All of these certainly do play out into her adult years, from her time in nursing and social work to her deeper mission to break barriers for women especially in the world of aviation. However, the chapters also dwell on her parents' unhappy marriage and her father's drinking problem - while certainly a part of Amelia's life and made me appreciate her cheerful disposition even with such difficult parts in her childhood, I noted some reviewers felt it was given too much focus for the targeted age range. Also, the dangers of flying are not downplayed and the deaths of many pilots are mentioned. Again, this may be fine for some children, but for other children it might be a bit too disturbing and inhibit their enthusiasm for flying rather than encourage it. I wouldn't want a sugar-coated biography but just be aware that I do think this one is perhaps better suited to upper elementary whereas most of the other COFA I have encountered are spot-on for the earlier grades . It also does get a bit bogged down in narrative and information--I found it engagingly told but all the famous people she meets, the press meetings, her will-she/won't-she marry one day... all that is not really what most young children are wanting to read about, they want the flying bits ;-) That said, I'm grateful this book is part of the series and, while I did skip over a few parts here and there, my seven-year-old loved what we read and wants to read it again. It was important to me that he see that women were also a part of the early days of aviation. I would recommend this to the older elementary set with the caveat that that, regrettably, there's no Bibliography, not even a list of Earhart's own works (which are mentioned in the story itself but not separately). NOTE: The book I read is by Beatrice Gormley. Apparently there is an earlier COFA titled, Amelia Earhart: Kansas Girl.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-01-15 00:00:00 David Jabs It is about amelias chirldhood and how she grows up! (Her nickname is Mille)