Books in American Heroes series

Named to the New York Public Library's Best Books for the Teen Age 2006 As a tomboy growing up in Kansas, Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) delighted in trying new and risky things, once even building a working roller-coaster in her grandparents' backyard. Her enchantment with aviation began in her twenties while she was volunteering as a war-time nurse in Toronto, Canada. She began taking flying lessons in California in 1921 and, to look more like a pilot, donned jodhpurs and boots before take-off and trimmed her blonde locks into the tousled bob that would become her signature style,. In 1928, when sponsors of the transatlantic Friendship flight sought a "Lady Lindy" to make the ocean crossing, they invited Earhart, whose willowy build, wholesome smile, and blue-grey eyes were similar to those of the famous Charles Lindbergh. Earhart received worldwide fame for this adventure.For nine spectacular years thereafter Amelia Earhart was the world's best-known aviatrix, setting records and championing the efforts of women, especially in aviation, inspiring females throughout the world to explore careers traditionally held by men. In 1937, she attempted to fly around the world at the Equator with navigator Fred Noonan. The two were lost en route to tiny Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean, just days before Earhart's fortieth birthday. President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the greatest land/ocean search ever undertaken but Earhart, Noonan, and the Electra were never found.