Amelia Lost written by Candace Fleming is a literary non-fiction book based on the first woman who flew around the world—Amelia Earhart. In third-person view, the author moves the reader back and forth in Amelia’s life, from her childhood, to her last flight with many interesting facts and stories. It features many incredible photos, maps, notes written by Amelia herself and many more informative captions and descriptions that makes this book more engaging to read. Although this story is based on real historical events, the author ties in amazing details with educational facts that make this an uncommon and unique non-fiction book.
Below are my thinking from book club discussions and reading:
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The first idea that our book club discovered was gender equality which was the most reoccurring issue in the book. Amelia’s childhood was full of discriminating thoughts on the expectations of men and women, which shaped her into who she is recognised for—being bold, audacious and being different from the expectations. Attached below, is my synthesized mind map that shows my thinking of gender stereotypes, and evidence to support it:
As I read deeper into the book, learning more about Amelia’s family and herself, many conflicts in the relationship between her and her family have been revealed more. I noticed many examples that suggests trust as one of the most vital components in a healthy and strong relationship. These conflicts also further displays more characteristics Amelia has such as being very strong and determined. Below is another mind map that supports my thinking:
More further reading allowed me to make more connections between the different events that happened in Amelia’s life. As Amelia was getting more fame, she made innumerable achievements throughout her life, eternally being passionate for flying, which led to greater success in her flying career. Below is a ‘Cause and Effect’ diagram that suggests many effects from situations such as World War II and family issues that affected Amelia’s life and career:
After finishing the book, I decided to do some further research on Amelia’s education during that time period where gender was discriminated. These schools, the Ogontz School and Columbia University, were all introduced to the reader by the author many times. The common feature both school has is that they both offer a variety of classes which was quite uncommon during their period, as many people were still judging women by their gender. The features of each school from my research connects back to several central ideas and themes of the story which gives me a better understanding of the book and the reason behind the details of these schools. Below are some of my research notes:
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In conclusion, “Amelia Lost” is an engaging and inspiring book with many surprising facts and stories. Thank you for looking through my post, if you are interested, be sure to find time to check out this incredible book:)