As a child I loved history and I found this love through historic picture books. Now that I am older I have tried to share that love with children through those same books. Unfortunately the kids I have read them to didn't feel the same way about history as I did when I first read them. When I saw this book I bought it immediately because it is meant for a younger audience. The book incorporates cartoon style characters with silly words and real facts. Amelia is drawn as a child through the entire story which I think helps children identify with the character. The author tells stories about her as a child and takes you through her entire career. I liked that the author didn't mention how she died, it wasn't necessary. He just focused on the facts about Amelia's life and the fact that she did something that everyone told her she couldn't do. This books opens the door for many different activities. I would use it to kick off a history lesson. You could ask the kids what they learned from the story. I think it would be great to do a sequencing activity. You could line up pictures and ask the kids to put them in the order of Amelia's life. You could also ask the kids if there was ever a time that someone told them they couldn't do something but they did it anyways. Brad Metzler has a few books in the style. You could read all of them to a classroom and ask the children to pick their own historical figure (which would be a great researching opportunity!) and have them create a book in the same style with cartoons and relatable language.Meltzer, Brad, and Christopher Eliopoulos. I Am Amelia Earhart. Print. This is one of the books in the Ordinary People Change The World series. Other ordinary people include Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks (published in June 2014) and Alberts Einstein (published in September 2014).I enjoyed this book and I feel that it will appeal to my very young readers. However, I'm not sure I would use for when my students do research on famous people. There are just two many things missing (birthday, doesn't mention her disappearance and there are no source notes.) Having said that, I'm not sure that this book is intended to be for serious research. I think that the intent is to introduce the idea of biographies to young readers. It would work well as a pre-read before reading one of the Rookie Biographies.
What do You think about I Am Amelia Earhart (2014)?
My kids love these books, and they're educational!
—cynfull67
