And now let's hear it for WOMEN!

Whether March came in like a lion or a lamb where you live, it ushered in Women’s History Month here in the USA. Initiated as Women’s History Week back in 1981, this annual spotlight has a short track record considering that females have outnumbered males in this country for decades.

If you read my post at the start of February regarding Black History Month you can safely assume those same sentiments apply to this month’s designation.

*sigh of resignation*

In the interest of sharing picture books deserving of a place on any bookshelf any time of the year, let’s look at three titles featuring six amazing women- three history-makers and three authors, all women of distinction in their own right.

When Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming was released last spring I posted a detailed review for the Center for Children’s Literacy. Since its release it has garnered four starred reviews and the coveted SCBWI Golden Kite Award for non-fiction. It’s a comprehensive and authoritative biography that reads like the best of fiction and features extensive photographic and archival images.

Nikki Grimes offers another impressive portrait in Talkin’ About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman (illustrated by E. B. Lewis). Grimes, acclaimed for her poetry and fiction, infuses energy, emotion, and insight into the story of Bessie’s short but influential life. This book has the distinction of winning a Coretta Scott King Honor for the text and medal for the illustrations.

Rounding out this high-flying trio of picture book inspiration is Amelia and Eleanor Go For a Ride, by Pam Munoz Ryan, (illustrated by Brian Selznick). Ryan depicts an evening at the White House dinner at which Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt slip away to share a night flight over Washington. They return and cap off a memorable evening when Eleanor slips behind the wheel of her brand new car to drive Amelia around Washington. Ryan’s notes in the back indicate the blend of research and imagination underlying her award-winning title.


All three are set in a time before Women's History Month was conceivable, paving the way for those of us who came after. Together they depict an era in which barriers of race and gender were far beyond overt and offensive, to say the least. That familiar old saw, "Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it", hovers over all of us. These three titles offer a line-up of impressive women from that time, each of whom deserves our attention on any day or month of the calendar.


And don't overlook the authors who brought these stories to us, three very impressive women by any measure.


So who do you nominate as an author or history-maker of note?

Amelia Overlooked: Worth the Search

The recent ALA Youth Media Awards were exciting, and highlighted many worthy books. Wednesday's post on I.N.K. Rethink  presented a thorough wrap-up of winning/honored non-fiction. Since the announcements, comments have been popping up about a title missing from that mix: Candace Fleming's 2011 Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart.

When it released last spring I posted a review at the Carthage College Center for Children's Literature site. I'm including a section of it here in hopes that this remarkable title will not be "lost" in the swirl of attention surrounding the recent awards.

Fleming leads readers on a surprising path to the truth behind Amelia’s winning smile and curly bob despite the iconic cover photo and unsurprising title of her new book. Including the fact that Amelia’s curls were not natural, as she often claimed, we find countless examples of Earhart’s efforts to develop and maintain a public persona as heroine/aviatrix, “otherwise flying opportunities will stop rolling in,” (her own words). Fleming plumbs reliable sources to correct misconceptions and shed new light on one of our brightest stars of the twentieth century while maintaining an objective tone.

Revealed through intriguing specifics, from her birth to her disappearance, Amelia becomes much more than a mythologized cardboard figure. Aspects of self-promotion and some “not very nice” decisions on the part of Amelia and her promoter/husband George Putnam enrich our understanding of her many passions: for flight, breaking barriers, risk-taking, and reaching her full potential. Exploring her many dimensions allows readers a broader perspective of the role Amelia played in the advance of aviation and women in American society. Fatal flaws leading to her disappearance (impulsivity, over-confidence, and tunnel vision among them) serve to humanize Earhart.

Amelia’s experiences as a social worker, advertiser, competitor, and clothing designer will come as a surprise to most readers. Other worthy players in the development and popularizing of aviation are given due credit, their points of view providing insight to Amelia’s choices. The intense efforts to locate her lost plane are revealed with enough suspense to engender a sense of possibility for success despite our knowledge of history.

From the cautionary forward (Don’t believe everything you read- dig for the truth) to the annotated bibliography, source notes by chapter, reliable web sources, and index, Fleming has created a profile built on solid research, primary sources, and a healthy dose of accuracy. Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart is a clear-eyed and compellingly suspenseful presentation of a remarkable American woman. Candace Fleming’s well-earned reputation for meticulous detail, exhaustive research, and superb storytelling continues unblemished in this blend of biography and true-life mystery.  

Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

By Candace Fleming

Schwartz and Wade Books, 2011 (Random House Books)

Readers: age 10 and up.
Starred Reviews in Kirkus Reviews, The Horn Book Magazine, School Library Journal, and The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books