Ilene Cooper (Booklist, Jun. 1, 2008 (Vol. 104, No. 19))
Starred Review* Amelia Earhart has been the subject of many youth biographies, but this one, a picture book for older children, is especially informative—and attractive. Earhart’s story begins when Amelia is 11 and a plane is pointed out to her at an Iowa fair. She is unimpressed then, but as a college student who volunteered as a nurse’s aide during the First World War, she saw planes aplenty and caught the flying bug. By the 1920s, Earhart was airborne and found fame in the air—as the first woman passenger on a transatlantic flight, then setting her own flying records. Tanaka writes with the sweep and excitement of an airplane climbing into the sky, while the format and visuals wonderfully enhance the text. In addition to a treasure trove of archival photographs, which capture Earhart’s appeal from her youth, there are a variety of handsomely rendered paintings, starting with the cover illustration that shows Earhart in her plane as crowds of male onlookers cheer. Several sidebars enlighten readers on everything from technical problems to fan mail for girls. Though Tanaka doesn’t turn this into a feminist tract, preferring to let Earhart’s accomplishments speak for themselves, she does point out that women’s options were limited, even as several women flyers appear in the book. Well sourced and well written, this is a fitting tribute to a high flyer. Grades 2-4

Elizabeth Bush (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, September 2008 (Vol. 62, No. 1))
Oddly, she received a lot of attention for what she called stunt flying—flying farther, higher, faster—when she really just wanted people to think of flying as boringly normal.” Amelia Earhart’s career, however, filled as it was with media-friendly firsts and envelope-pushing ambition, wasn’t ever going to strike sedate citizens as boring, and her disappearance over the Pacific Ocean wasn’t going to strike the flight-phobic as normal. Tanaka, who has taken on a host of kid-fascinating topics, steers well clear of any fictionalization here, offering a biography much in the line of Corinne Szabo’s Sky Pioneer. This title is notable, however, for its smooth, powerful storytelling, ample gallery of well-chosen photographs, and nicely placed sidebar information on such topics as flight delays, navigation, and around-the-word flight records. Tanaka’s discussion of the theories of Earhart’s disappearance is well balanced yet provocative enough to nudge readers toward further research. Craig’s often garish and sometimes fictionalized full-page paintings make a jarringly unpleasant contrast to the otherwise attractive and spacious layout, but this is still attractive bait for biography readers and even a strong possibility for a classroom readaloud. An index, a page of references (including websites), photograph credits, and quotation source notes are included Review Code: R -- Recommended