Non-fiction Mysteries: Amelia Lost and How They Croaked

Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

Written by Candace Fleming

Published 2011 by Schwartz and Wade

What’s it about?

Yes, the title gives it away a bit, but this isn’t just any old Amelia Earhart biography book. Many of you may know a little something about Amelia, especially about her accomplishments as one of the great American pilots and as a pioneer for women. You might also know that her plane mysteriously disappeared as she was attempting to fly solo around the world. Candace Fleming creates a super interesting way to learn about her life. In alternating chapters she tells Amelia’s life story along side the story of the rescue operation that occurred after it was discovered her plane was missing. You’ll read about the panic of Navy ship officers as they realized they lost communication with Earhart’s plane. You’ll read about ordinary citizens with powerful radios who believe they heard Amelia’s voice on the radio after she went missing. All of the excitement of the search is broken up with chapters about Amelia’s life from childhood to adulthood when she became famous.

Why you might like it:

• Amelia is a super interesting character. She wasn’t a perfect person, but she sure had a passion for what she did.
• Her story is an exciting one. She did some pretty brave stuff.
• I loved the format of alternating the biography chapters with the rescue operation chapters. It makes the whole book exciting, even if you know how the rescue mission turns out.
• It is full of great photographs and copies of primary source documents like newspaper articles and flight documents.

Listen to Candace Fleming talk about historical figures in her nonfiction books:

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How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous

Written by Georgia Bragg and illustrated by Kevin O’Malley

Published 2011 by Walker and Company

What’s it about?

We all know it happens. Everybody does it. Yes, everyone dies. This book talks about the deaths of some really famous people, many of whom died before advances in medicine, like life saving drugs. Sometimes the deaths were violent. Sometimes they were just plain gross. Here are the stories of nineteen famous people, and if your stomach can handle it, they are yours to read, learn from, and probably even utter a few replies of, “Ewww! That’s gross!”

Be Warned!: The introduction page in “How They Croaked”

Why you might like it:

• The author does a great job of making these historical figures interesting. She’ll explain stuff you might not know about in a funny way. I promise, this history book is not one of those boring ones you sometimes hear people complaining about!
• The illustrations are great and often pretty funny, too.
• There’s fun extra stuff to look over like quirky facts about some of the diseases or people, or even what King Henry the VIII and his royal court ate on an average day (a LOT!).

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Now What? Here are some other nonfiction books you might like! 

(Click on the image to learn more about each title)