I have been fascinated with Amelia Earhart for as long as I can remember.  I have wanted to read Candace Fleming’s new biography of the pilot ever since I first heard of it.  I was thrilled when I learned that Amelia Lost:  The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart was included on the Young Hoosier Award list for the coming year.  Now that I’ve read it, I will be pushing it on everyone.

I like how the chapters alternate between the search for the Amelia and her navigator Fred Noonan and the events of her life.  The suspense builds even though we know the story ends in tragedy.  In addition to the search by the Coast Guard cutter the Itasca and later the US Navy, several civilians picked up possible transmissions from the downed pilot over their shortwave radios.  None of it was enough to find them.

Fleming presents the captivating image that Amelia and her publisher/publicist and husband George Putman showed the world, but she also digs behind the image to reveal the woman behind it.  Yes, Amelia was brave and funny, but she was also stubborn and cavalier.  She didn’t always make the best choices, and some of those choices may have led to her disappearance.

Here I am with Amelia and her plane at the Smithsonian.

If you want to learn even more about Earhart, Fleming provides a list of helpful resources in the back of the book.  In addition to archives and books written by Earhart herself, there are books and collections from her husband and family.  Much information is available online, too, and she gives those web addresses.

Even so, Amelia Earhart inspired–and continues to inspire–generations of women to dare to dream big dreams.  If you want to hear for yourself how warm and funny and inspiring she could be, check out her own book, For the Fun of It.  Since no one has taken the hint and given it to me for Christmas, I’m just going to have to buy it for myself.