Overview
Named to the New York Public Library's Best Books for the Teen Age 2006
As a tomboy growing up in Kansas, Amelia Earhart delighted in trying new and risky things, once even building a roller-coaster in her grandparents' backyard. In her 20s she fell in love with flight while watching an aerobatics exhibition and grew even more enthralled when she took her first airplane ride.
At age 24 she earned her pilot's wings and 1928 took part in the transatlantic "Friendship" flight. Her willowy build, wholesome smile, and tousled blonde hair invited comparison to the celebrated pilot Charles Lindbergh, and "Lady Lindy" charmed the public with her unassuming manner.
In 1937, Earhart wed publisher George Putnam, who managed her career and promoted her zealously, ensuring her status as the world's best-known aviatrix. The next year, she soloed the Atlantic, afterward receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross and began championing the efforts of women throughout the world to explore careers — especially in aviation —
traditionally held by men.Tragically, just days before her fortieth birthday, Earhart, her navigator Fred Noonan, and their plane vanished en route to tiny Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean as they neared the end of their round-the-world journey. President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the greatest land and ocean search ever undertaken but no trace of the missing flyers or their craft were ever found.
To Amelia Earhart, even the sky was no limit to those with the courage to test new boundaries.
Synopsis
Named to the New York Public Library's Best Books for the Teen Age 2006 As a tomboy growing up in Kansas, Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) delighted in trying new and risky things, once even building a working roller-coaster in her grandparents' backyard.Her enchantment with aviation began in her twenties while she was volunteering as a war-time nurse in Toronto, Canada. She began taking flying lessons in California in 1921 and, to look more like a pilot, donned jodhpurs and boots before take-off and trimmed her blonde locks into the tousled bob that would become her signature style,.
In 1928, when sponsors of the transatlantic Friendship flight sought a "Lady
Lindy" to make the ocean crossing, they invited Earhart, whose willowy build, wholesome smile, and blue-grey eyes were similar to those of the famous Charles Lindbergh. Earhart received worldwide fame for this adventure.
For nine spectacular years thereafter Amelia Earhart was the world's best-known aviatrix, setting records and championing the efforts of women, especially in aviation, inspiring females throughout the world to explore careers traditionally held by men.
In 1937, she attempted to fly around the world at the Equator with navigator Fred Noonan. The two were lost en route to tiny Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean, just days before Earhart's fortieth birthday.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the greatest land/ocean search ever undertaken but Earhart, Noonan, and the Electra were never found.