Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean
Written By: Sarah Stewart Taylor
Illustrated by: Ben Towle and Eileen Collins
Published: 2010
I'm sorry, I just can't keep myself away from the graphic novels. Again, this one is very brief, so I don't feel bad classifying it as a picture book as well. Amelia Earhart has always been a person of interest for me, so I obviously was on cloud nine when I discovered this little treasure. It is a biography, but it is a biography told through the eyes of a small girl who is an aspiring journalist. She finds herself following Amelia Earhart's journey across the Atlantic Ocean after she has the opportunity to briefly meet her. I found this perspective to be a very interesting concept. Usually, child narrators can be a bit unpredictable and unreliable when it comes to telling a truthful and straightforward story. However, this child's middle name is pretty much "Hard Hitting Story" and she wants to be the first to report all of the recent events in the newspaper she created. Due to this and her critical eye, we get accurate and detailed information about Amelia and her journey.
The illustrations took some getting used to. Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean was created at The Center for Cartoon Studies, which is a college of sorts for cartoonist located in Vermont. All of the illustrations were created in a blue/black color scheme, as many cartoons are. This made the story a bit tricky to follow at points because there were not any bold focal points in the pictures to help you figure out what was happening if you did not understand the text. Once you get used to the pictures and the characters, the story runs a bit more smoothly.
While this book may have been a bit tricky to follow at points, I thought that it did an excellent job of portraying the excitement and need for adventure that many probably felt when Earhart was soaring through the skies. It also mentioned and explained the competition she had, in form of other women attempting to beat her across the Atlantic. This is something that I never thought about when learning about her through books and lessons in school.
I would definitely recommend this book to any child who is interested in biographies. It is a solid biography with the twist of an unexpected narrator, which is a nice change from your typical biographies that just spit facts left and right. I will also have this book in my classroom library for anybody who has a taste for adventure and excitement. I give this book 4 stars.
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