Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean

Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean. Sarah Stewart Taylor. Illustrated by Ben Towle. 2010. Hyperion. 96 pages.

Trepassey--from the French word Trepasses--means "Haven of Souls." But people in our part of Newfoundland call our town "Dead Man's Bay." Hundreds of sailors have been claimed by our cold, black ocean...and through the years we've claimed the things that survived the shipwrecks--the cloth and silver and bits and pieces the sea spat out.

A graphic novel about Amelia Earhart?! I knew I *had* to read this one. This fictionalized graphic novel is narrated by "Nosy Nelly", a child who meets Amelia Earhart weeks before her transatlantic ocean crossing in 1928. It focuses on a small portion of Amelia Earhart's life. It focuses on one of the triumphant moments of her life as opposed to the mysterious legacy she left behind. (Not that it wouldn't have been interesting to read a detailed account of her last flight--her great attempt to fly around the world--but it would be a different story, a sadder story.)

I liked this one. I liked seeing Earhart's ambitions--her determination, her diligence. And I liked seeing the ambitions of our "Nosy Nelly"--Grace--as she pursues her dreams of being a journalist. It's an empowering graphic novel that I definitely enjoyed and would be happy to recommend.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

1 comment:

kaye said...

I love the way the author leave us with a sense of her deep-rooted desire to reach the sky.