Amelia Earhart: The Sky's No Limit (American Heroes) by Lori Van Pelt

by Lori Van Pelt

Excellent Book

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Aviation, Audiobook, American History, Womens

Paperback

First published March 1, 2005

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but nothing really new.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Please know I am aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.” (From letter Amelia Earhart wrote and sealed before her world-circling trip.)

Well-written biography of an extraordinary person. Amelia Earhart was bigger than life; she had vision and ability far beyond many women and men of her day. Van Pelt compiles both how much Amelia accomplished but also her goals and ambitions along the way. Much coverage of her disappearance. Not without her warts—she may not have been the best flyer around, but she was among the gutsiest.

“I wanted to fly because I wanted to; not because advance publicity compelled me.” AE
Earhart and many of her contemporaries struggled with what she had to do—books, endorsements, tours—to accomplish what she did, but flying then was an incredibly expensive business. To fly her best, she needed the best equipment; often cutting edge, and not always completely ready. Many of her long-range flights depended on ad hoc extra fuel tanks which often threatened the very missions they made possible.

“My particular inner desire to fly the Atlantic alone was nothing new to me. I had flown Atlantics before. Everyone has his own Atlantics to fly. Whatever you want very much to do, against the opposition of tradition, neighborhood opinion, and so-called ‘common sense’—that is an Atlantic.” AE

Husband and manager George P. Putnam had a big role in creating the Amelia Earhart we remember, good and bad. He was almost her Svengali. He publicized flights she wanted secret; arranged interviews when she needed sleep before and after flights, sold indorsements she didn’t like (e. g., cigarettes when she didn’t smoke), started her fashion line, and generally ran her non-flying life.

“She has a clarity of mind, impersonal eye, coolness of temperament, balance of a scientist. Aside from that, I like her.” Anne Lindbergh

She was a competitor and role model for a generation of flyers, and of women in all walks of life. The following sentiment could also be applied to those contemplating manned mission to the moon and Mars, with the same concern.

“I feel sure that if she comes through safely she will feel what she has learned makes it worth while. But her friends will wish science could not have been served without so much risk to a fine person whom so many people love as a person and not as a pilot or adventurer.” Eleanor Roosevelt

[Shirley Eiswerth (Quackenbush) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned things I didn’t know about Amelia, good brief history and account of her life.

[Joy H.]

Added July 13, 2018. (first published March 1st 2005)
Narrated by: Kris Faulkner
July 15, 2018 - I've decided that this isn't the book for me. It didn't draw me in. It didn't interest me. So I've decided not to continue.

[Gary Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compact history of Amelia Earhart. The book doesn't delve into any specific facet of her life/career, but it is a concise, well written, history of her life.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars - The emphasis seemed much more about the people around Amelia than the pilot herself. Some interesting material but overall lacking in personality and focus. Read more like a term paper than a biography.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first the narrator was a little irritating, but I guess she grew on me. Some words are mispronounced and there are some grammar errors, which may have been written, thus they were spoken. I'm not sure. Either way, I found this to be a nice comprehensive telling of Amelia Earhart's life and career. I did a book report on her as a kid in junior high school and it cemented my dream of one day flying an airplane. While the dream has yet to come true, I still find Earhart to be an amazing role model for girls especially. I learned while listening to this book just how many awards she won and records she broke, and its an astounding number of both. I also had no idea just how far ahead of her time she really was as far as women's rights, equal pay for equal work, and her independent views on marriage, changing the last name after marriage, and prenuptial agreements. She became a heroine to my wide-eyed middle school self back in the day, and I'm proud to say that I'm an even bigger fan after reading this book.

[Amanda Sexton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook version. The narrator’s voice took a bit to get used to, she read with a low, velvety tone, but it was an easy book to listen to once I listened for a chapter.

I’ve always been curious about who Amelie’s Earhart was, and after watching a documentary about perhaps finding where she was buried, I was intrigued to know more. This book, I believe, was aimed at YA, but as an adult, I found that the author did a good job in researching her personal life as well as her career as an aviator. One issue I found was that there were a ton of names loaded into the pages, and I easily lost track of who was who.

[David Elton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amelia Earhart, Lori van Pelt. Interesting enough biography. She set a lot of records. Died in crash in Pacific Ocean, somewhere with her co-pilot Fred Noonan. She married a publisher who made money on her exploits. She wrote books (like Lindbergh). She was the second nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic. In a red Vega, now in the Smithsonian. She died in an Electra. Purdue University hired her to encourage women to fly and go into technical careers. Purdue University funded her Electra. Oops. May 15, 2022

[Jargon Jester · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think most people are aware of Amelia's pioneering in women's rights, especially in aviation, and most know of her disappearance over the ocean in one of her flights. This book provided several more details about her life. We get a notion for her fierce desire to be free of constraints and push the boundaries, not only in the air but also in relationships. Events are shared in a matter-of-fact manner without dramatization, which I appreciated.

[Maryanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars based on the subject. This particular look at Amelia’s life, while up to date, is factual without the opinion or conclusion that many biographers would offer. I have a hard time with these books that offer a timeline with a litany if facts. But again, I was interested in Amelia and aching for even more threads from which to gauge her inner thoughts and feelings.

[(Katie) Paperbacks · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read because I didn't know much about Amelia Earhart. This focused mainly on her pilot career but didn't share a lot of her personal life. It was a quick short read, I had fun reading something different.

[Cheyenne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this July 24, 2017, in celebration of Amelia Earhart's birthday. Not only was Amelia a pioneer aviator, she was a strong supporter of equality and women's rights.

[Jodi Heiner · Rating 3 out of 5]

6th grade book report assignment. It was a good read.

[Susan Forsgren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well told, informative non-fiction book.
I learned much.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing look into the legendary Amelia Earhart. I enjoyed learning about her life, goals and accomplishments.

[Brit · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a short book, giving me a quick insight or overview of a historic person.

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

An audiobook about Earhart's early flying life leading up to her disappearance. Learned some interesting facts.

[Kelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned a LOT I didn’t know about her!

[Jan Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine.

[Mom · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good biography of AE stressing her courage (recklessness?) and achievements.

[C Faber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting, maybe it’s 3.5 stars, but basically, it was just a list of things she accomplished. A quick read.

[Misha Mueller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really didn’t know much about Earhart other than her solo flight across the Atlantic and the round the world flight when she disappeared. The author included a lot of the plane and flight specs, which I wasn’t as interested in, and contemporary (into the early 2000s) attempts to solve her disappearance and recreate many of her lesser known flights, which I did find pretty nifty.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

A feminist and an enigma, Amelia Earhart is someone about whom I want to know and understand more. I'm not sure if there is enough content out there to really delve into her thoughts and motivations, and this bare-bones-junior-high-library find certainly didn't get there for me.

[Katherine Cowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last night I dreamed of flying. It may have had something to do with finishing a book about a woman who got in a small plane and spent 20 hours and 40 minutes crossing the Atlantic Ocean by herself and then landed in an entirely different country than the one she intended to reach. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to cross the Atlantic on a plane, but the first time she did it as a passenger and didn't feel she deserved the fame she received, so then she trained and trained until she was able to do it by herself. She took the voyage despite the high risk she faced of failure--death--in part because of her spirit of adventure, and in part because she wanted to prove that a woman could do all that a man could do.

This biography opened my eyes to the risks taken by early pilots, when a gust of wind could blow away the map that you had safety clipped to your clothes, when all your equipment might stop working, and when crashing was routine (Amelia crashed many times--the goal was to crash in a way that would limit the damage to yourself and your plane). A lot of the time pilots would land in fields rather than runways. In one women's airplane race, spectators sabotaged some of the airplanes because they did not believe that women should be flying.

Amelia Earhart is one of those highly romanticized American heroes. The author tries to be objective...but some of the hero-worship sneaks in. By the end of the book I understood why: Amelia Earhart truly was amazing, and she spent much of her public life trying to inspire others, particularly women. She wrote: “My particular inner desire to fly the Atlantic alone was nothing new with me. I had flown Atlantics before. Everyone has his own Atlantics to fly. Whatever you want very much to do, against the opposition of tradition, neighborhood opinion, and so-called ‘common sense’—that is an Atlantic.”

Some other things I found interesting were that Amelia considered marriage as a cage for women, with the point of creating domestic robots. She created one of the first prenuptial agreements, and she never had children.

Oh--and did I mention Amelia disappeared in her around the world flight? This certainly adds to her mystique, and several chapters are devoted to it. It's amazing how many millions have been spent (and our still being spent) trying to find her airplane. I've done a little Googling, and this year (2013) they may have found where she crashed.

There are dozens of biographies on Amelia Earhart. I chose this one because it was short and immediately available at the library. Is it the best biography about her? Probably not. There were definitely parts where I thought it would've been nice to go more in depth, have some more actual quotes, do more with the nuances, have some photographs of her and her planes, etc. But it was engagingly told, and it was nice that it was such a quick read.

[Ivy Deliz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started taking ground school 3 weeks ago and I found myself wanting to learn more about the famous people in aviation, specially Amelia Earhart. Go feminism! So I picked this book at the library because it had a cool title and was relatively short. *Sigh* My rating does not reflect my liking Amelia's story but the way the story is told. I found it really hard to get into it because it's told in a third person and too matter-of-factly, almost like a history book. I'm particularly upset that the author refers to Buzz Aldrin as a crewman on the second spaceflight to the Moon, which is completely wrong, as he was the second man to step on the Moon on the first Moon landing after Armstrong, and that was the fourth flight to the Moon's vicinity. As a biography, I would hope all the facts are correct and the only fact I did know was incorrect, so it degrades the credibility of this book.

Aside from that, Amelia's story is one of pure adventure and courage. Back when women were supposed to be at home doing laundry and flying itself was not very safe, she broke all the rules and after seeing an airshow she knew she had to do it herself. She flew across the Atlantic, participated in multiple flight races and broke tons of records, including men's records. What I loved about reading her story was that she didn't do this without mishaps or mistakes, she crashed her aircraft multiple times, she saw her fellow pilots perish, but no matter the risks she wanted to continue her journey.

This are the same ideals I have towards spaceflight, which would be the equivalent of flying in my generation. Many astronauts have perished, many mistakes have been made, but I still can't wait to do it myself! To experience flight, to not be grounded but to be free. At the end, it shows how many people have attempted to do the same flight across the world that took her life in her honor, as a proof of courage and determination. It's almost like a Tour de France or an ultramarathon or going to the Moon, we do this things "not because they are easy but because they are hard", because this is the way to show what we are made of.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a simplistic little biography and is okay as far as it goes. It turns out to be part of a series called “American Heroes” so I suspect it is supposed to be simplistic. But having recently listened to Kai Bird’s superb biography of J Robert Oppenheimer, this one left me unsatisfied and nearly a bit bored.

The basic outline of Amelia’s life is there but no depth. A few examples: I picked up a sense that Amelia was not a particularly good pilot, but this was not explored. There is some discussion of her role in women’s rights, but nothing in depth and nearly nothing about the other women flyers of the time. Much of her prominence came during the Depression, yet there is no word about the influence of this major event on her career and her life. Thankfully, the author also does not explore her disappearance.

As a little biography it is not terrible, but the Reader, Kris Faulkner, definitely is terrible. Several times I had to simply shut off her saccharine voice and her inability to pronounce simple English words without high affectation. I found myself mimicking her affected accent. Even worse, she did not know how to pronounce many names and words. Gila River, Jai Alai come to mind, but there were more standard words as well. This really grated. I would recommend never listening to a tape read by Kris Faulkner. (Only once did I have to stop listening to a tape because of the reader; this one came close).

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book, written as a biography, was very thorough in it's presentation of the life of Amelia. I enjoyed reading the side-issues, family relationships, relationships with many of the famous flyers in the 1920's / 1930's that are truly heros of that era. Speculations on Amelia's final flight are presented as just that, speculations. Nobody actually knows what happened. We can only look at the facts.
Lori Van Pelt has a large bibliography at the end, and seems to have researched this American Hero very well.

[Lauriann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really don't have much to say about this book. I borrowed it from the audio-library because there was nothing better available. It was what I expected it to be, well researched and informative. It rounded out a character with whom I had a familiarity but not a great knowledge. And I like when biographies do that, especially when they are about someone who was pivotal in history. Much of the writing had technical flight details, but it also portrayed her as the courageous determined young woman she was. I wasn't enchanted, but I grew a little bit in knowledge.

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I find Amelia Earhart quite compelling, I cannot say the same about this book. It is quite dry and fails at really bringing Amelia to life. I did expect some dryness due to the nature of this book publication and it being NF (although not all NF is dry by any means), but it was more bothersome than I would have liked. I honestly would really love to find a well-written historical fiction on Amelia, but that book does not seem to exist.