Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean

by: Sarah Stewart Taylor and Ben Towle

 An excellent choice for comic fans, history buffs, and anyone looking for a strong female role model.

-Douglas P. Davey, Halton Hills Public Library,

 Ontario, Canada (c) Copyright 2010.

Published by: Hyperion Press copyright: 2010

This creatively informative graphic novel exemplifies Amelia Earhart’s time spent in Trepassey, Newfoundland trying to take off for her first transatlantic flight. Grace the protagonist of the story is an aspiring reporter who gets captivated in the valiant attempts of Amelia and her perseverance to do what she wants despite people putting her down. Despite a few failed attempts to take off Amelia remains hopeful that there trip will be coming soon and be successful. Amelia gives Grace an insider interview before she takes off the next day. Graces feels so fortunate to get the one on one interview with Amelia and even more fortunate when she receives a telegram from Amelia when she finally lands in Whales. The story then skips to nine years later and Grace hears about Amelia’s disappearance. She is then inspired to pursue a career as a reporter because of the message that Amelia represented, that woman should go after their dream.  

Reading level: 5th and up

Suggested Delivery: Small group, read aloud

Vocabulary: Intrigued, endeavors, aviation, triumphant, voyage, tenacity, manifested, moxy, circumnavigate, autonomy, aerobatic

Electronic Resources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/books/review/Stone-t.html Read a news paper article about this book.

http://disney.go.com/books/amelia-earhart-this-broad-ocean-1423113373 This is a great resource for teachers. This site gives great teaching tools such as discussion questions, lessons that you can use this book for, including art, math, history and science. This site also has an interview with the author.

Activities to increase comprehension:

Before reading: Have students research about Amelia Earhart. Teach them how to read a comic strip (how to follow the format). You can also ask them what they already know about Amilia Earhart and create a list.

During reading: Discuss why being a woman flying across the Atlantic Ocean was such an extraordinary thing at the time. Have the students write questions that they have about the story that they can try and answer after they read it. Students can also look up the vocabulary that they don’t understand as they read.

After reading: Have the students write a new list of things that they learned about Amelia and what they know now. Have the students compare the list the made before reading the book to the one after reading the book. They can then take what they learned about Amelia and her characteristics and create a Wordle at http://www.wordle.net/. You can also Have the students create their own comic strip story by using:  http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/games-tools/comic-creator-a-30237.html