Books in the People We Should Know series provide introductions to famous people, past and present. In this biography, Brown profiles famous American flyer Amelia Earhart. Written in four chapters, the book features relatively large type, short sentences, and plenty of white space. The text smoothly relates the basic story of Earhart's life and a sense of her character. Clean page design and the attractive presentation of black-and-white photos make the book equally appealing for middle-grade students with low reading levels and for younger readers. Other biographies in this well-designed series include books on Martin Luther King and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Gr 2-4-All four clearly written accounts introduce important 20th-century people to beginning readers. Each book is a simplified version of text taken from "Trailblazers of the Modern World" (World Almanac Library), written for middle school students. Some of the photographs seem irrelevant or poorly captioned. In the first book, the caption for a photograph of Earhart seated at a desk holding a piece of paper explains that Amelia tried new things as she grew up. (What new things?) In Roosevelt, a photograph of Golda Meir giving Roosevelt an award has no accompanying explanation of the reason for the award. In King, an undated photograph of a black family sitting in a field is placed adjacent to text explaining Dr. King's summer jobs. (What relationship do these people have with him?) The suggestions for more information include well-chosen books and Web sites. However, libraries should reserve their funds for better choices.-Rebecca Sheridan, Easttown Library & Information Center, Berwyn, PA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.