171. Who Was A Daring Pioneer of the Skies? Amelia Earhart

Who Was A Daring Pioneer of the Skies? Amelia Earhart. Melanie Gillman. 2022. [August] 64 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Thank you all for joining me here! I am very pleased to finally announce what will be my newest venture. 

Premise/plot: Who Was A Daring Pioneer of the Skies? Amelia Earhart is a nonfiction graphic novel in the Who HQ series. Most of the story unfolds in comic panels. Occasionally there's a full page of text--an aside, if you will--that provides further background and context to the main narrative. The focus is almost exclusively on her last flight. The last third (pure guess on my part) are told from others' perspective: those on the waiting side. The last few pages focus on the aftermath.

My thoughts: I have read many books on Amelia Earhart through the past three decades. I thought the narrative in this graphic novel was a little judge-y. It almost seemed smug in an I-told-you-so way. I don't know why that would be the intention of the author. I really don't think it was. Perhaps I just misread the tone. (Totally possible.) There seemed to be some contempt for Amelia's husband, G.P. Putnam, throughout the book. Like he played a large part in why her venture failed and ultimately why she died. Again perhaps I just misread the tone. But I definitely got the feeling in the last few pages that Putnam was being held in contempt by the author. It isn't unusual in instances like this for books to genuinely ask what if questions or if only speculations. Usually authors make this clear what they are doing--asking what if or speculating if only. That isn't the case here.

There is some tension--a good thing in a book--as the story unfolds. It was definitely the right choice and ultimately the only choice to change perspectives for the last leg of her journey. We see those on the other end, the waiting, the increase worry as the wait lengthens past what it should be if all was smooth. There is the tense--she must have run out of fuel by now, where could she be, why couldn't we contact her,  why can't we contact her, did she go off course, did she crash, where did she crash, etc. The same questions that haunt us now. 

So I liked some things for sure. But the text seemed a bit bias against her husband and a tiny bit against Amelia herself. Like Amelia was too proud, too smug, too confident to take the time to actually prepare or learn what she needed to learn in order to attempt this. 

© 2022 Becky Laney of Young Readers