The Who HQ Graphic Novels series (3 new titles) does an excellent job of quickly engaging readers by capturing the drama and immediacy of pivotal historic events. Each biography profiles one famous individual and plunges readers into the past with equal degrees of intensity. After a page or two of introductory material that sets historic and social context, the stories deploy snappy dialogue and vibrant artwork to effectively propel the action. Who Was the Daring Pioneer of the Skies? begins with a press conference during which Amelia Earhart announces her upcoming flight to misogynistic reporters and eventually segues to increasingly frantic members of the Coast Guard awaiting her long-overdue arrival at the Howland Islands. In addition to the occasional explanatory sidebar, titles include concluding summaries, time lines, and bibliographies. These graphic offerings manage to pack in an impressive amount of information and are sure to appeal to middle-grade readers.

Fasten your seat belt and prepare to join Amelia Earhart as she attempts to set one last record-flying around the world at the equator.This book's preflight briefing includes an introduction to aviation history, Earhart's course in the male-dominated skies, and her reasons for a globe-circling flight at the equator. Dramatic black-and-white comic illustrations and journal-style entries based on Earhart's notes and letters, as well as periodic pagelong sections in prose about Earhart's crew, plane, and radio direction finder, transform her last flight into a compelling and tense drama. Too many fundraising schemes, too little preparation, and the extra weight of promotional items hint at doom. During the journey, delays, loss of crew members, and difficulty spotting small jungle runways foreshadow disaster ahead. The leg to Howland, a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific, was the hardest part of the journey. Almost hourly log entries track communications from USCGC Itasca waiting near Howland as it struggles, and fails, to make contact with Earhart. Numerous panels focus on the intense media coverage following Earhart's disappearance and reactions from women from various walks of life, but this story ends on a positive note with excerpts from Earhart's last letter from the day she set out for Howland about the joy of flying through stormy weather and knowing that if she can "tilt my plane up," she will "emerge into sunlight."A suspenseful, well-researched story that captures the drama of Earhart's life and last flight. (timeline, bibliography) (Graphic nonfiction. 8-12)