Eleven-year-old narrator Amalee doesn't have any close friends; her father has four, all of whom drive Amalee crazy. When her single-parent father becomes seriously ill, his friends save the day, taking turns watching over Amalee and her bedridden dad, and she learns some lessons about friendship and growing up. This uplifting story will grab young readers with its sympathetic portrayal of middle-school life.

Gr 2-3 Simple sentences; large type; and colorful illustrations, many of them full-page, make the story of this intriguing woman easy to read. The text is filled with Earhart's many exciting adventures, from a near collision between her snow sled and a horse-drawn cart when she was young to a stormy ride as an adult across the Atlantic in an ill-equipped airplane. The art shows Earhart at different stages of her life as well as fashions and lifestyles of the times. A time line appears in the back of the book, but there is no index. The tendency to subtitle each chapter with dates and then go on to describe events that happened earlier is slightly disconcerting. Quibbles aside, this biography is a solid choice for newly independent readers. Anne Knickerbocker, formerly at Cedar Brook Elementary School, Houston, TX