EARHART

In this Swiss import, translated from German, a field mouse with a gift for gadgetry anticipates Amelia Earhart’s ill-fated final venture.

The narrative is decidedly sketchy next to the ultra-realistic, lavishly detailed illustrations, but it tells an inspiring story. Electrified to discover through international postage stamps that the world is far larger than she had supposed, the never-named mouse intrepidly braves dangers and obstacles aplenty to construct an airplane and set out in search of African lions and further wonders beyond. In letters to an older mouse aviator and inventor who will be familiar to fans of Kuhlmann’s Lindbergh, she reports on her experiences, including how she survived when her plane was destroyed in a storm over the Pacific and how she went on to meet a human aviator named Amelia with a similar desire to fly around the world. Montages and larger images depict the flight’s highlights, along with engrossing views of meticulous mechanical drawings and working spaces strewn with tools and gear. Closing notes on Earhart as “Pilot and Champion of Women’s Rights” and other early world-circlers are accompanied by period photographs. Budding makers with dreams of their own will take heart from the pink-eared engineer’s declaration that “even for the tiniest of creatures, nothing is impossible!”

The art and the exploit both soar.