Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean.
Taylor, Sarah Stewart (Author) , Towle, Ben (Illustrator)
STARRED REVIEW
While this first woman of flight has been the subject of many juvenile biographies, Taylor and Towle have combined their talents for research, narrative, and image to offer a fresh view of one particular chapter of her life. In June 1928, Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic — not as the pilot but as a passenger. The bulk of the story takes place in a small Newfoundland village, the takeoff point for the historic flight, and is told from the point of view of a young girl. The unromanticized depiction portrays the drunkard pilot and reveals the often-harsh preconceptions that both the locals and reporters had of this unconventional woman. As Earhart invested in her own dreams, in the end so too does the young girl she inspires. Endnotes authenticate the underlying historical significance and accuracy of some images, including those of her last, apparently failed, flight 10 years later. Towle's black-and-white cartooning, washed with aqua blue, nicely suits the period and displays the excellent work of James Sturm's Center for Cartoon Studies, through which this book was developed. This is a true sequential art narrative, requiring the reader to attend to the visual as well as the verbal components; but it is also a well-told story of an episode in Earhart's life that has particular appeal to readers looking for insight on how celebrity is both made and misunderstood, and how it matures. — Francisca Goldsmith
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