Amelia Earhart Adventures in the Sky-Autobiography-Chapter Book

Amelia Earhart Adventures in the Sky by Francene Sabin and Joanne Mattern is a book that captures the true hero we all know and love!  Amelia Earhart grew up during the time period when girls were supposed to wear dresses, play with dolls, be as lady like as possible, but Amelia and her younger sister Muriel were different from the other girls.  They grew up climbing trees, playing baseball and basketball with their parents, doing everything they were told not too by others.  Amelia grew up living on the wild, and dangerous side, always willing to try new things, and that’s why when she saw her first plane at eleven years old her life would never be the same.  Amelia went on to high school and college to get her education, but she never felt her life meant anything until she moved away with her sister to help wounded soldiers.  There she felt like her life meant more that just books and school work.  On one of her days off Amelia and her friend went to an airfield nearby where, where one of the pilots decided to play a trick on Amelia and her friend and drove the plane right toward the two of them.  Like any normal person her friend took off running, but brave Amelia just stood there fearless!  After the plan passed she said, “I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by”, and later she wrote “I determined then that I would some day ride one of these machines”.  In 1920 her dream came true when she went home to visit her family, she was given the chance to ride in one and she was even allowed to help control it.  From then on she began lessons and in 1922 she received her pilots license.  Amelia became known for many of her awards and accomplishments.  She became the first pilot male or female to fly solo from Hawaii to California; from California to Mexico, and many other places as well.  Amelia Earhart became an inspiration for many people to take up flying, but on June 1 1917 she set off for a trip around the world that will never be forgotten.  Throughout the trip Amelia and her partner Fred kept a diary about where they had traveled and where they were headed next, but on July 2 they set off for Howland Island, but unfortunately never made it.  From that day on Amelia and her partner were never seen or heard of again, but remain legends until this day forward.  I think this book is so great because it shows that you can be whatever you want to be as long as you believe and try your hardest at becoming that.  Throughout Amelia’s life she always did her own thing and never conformed to what others wanted her to be and I think that is one reason she became the woman she did.  I would use this book in many ways in my classroom.  One way, which I remember doing when I was in fourth grade was using it as a book report.  When I was in fourth grade we were all given a list of famous people to pick from to do a book report on, so I picked Amelia Earhart.  After reading books and doing research on our person we had to dress up like that person and then give a short speech about them to the class as if we were that person.  I really enjoyed this lesson and think that many other students would enjoy it also because dressing up is always fun and by giving the speech from our persons point of view allowed us to become that character!