Alone with the Stars

By: David R. Gillham

Narrated by: Hillary Huber, Emily Bauer

Length: 2 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's Summary

In the summer of 1937, Amelia Earhart is the most famous woman in the world - a record-breaking pilot, a best-selling author, and a modern woman shattering the glass ceiling in the early days of aviation. 

And then she vanishes. 

In Tampa, Florida, 15-year-old Lizzie Friedlander spends her afternoons glued to her father’s radio, tapping into the enormity of a world she longs to travel. Lizzie can hardly believe her ears when she picks up a radio signal from a faraway source that sets her heart racing: “Amelia Earhart calling SOS!” 

As Lizzie copies down the transmissions, it’s clear that the Amelia Earhart is not lost at sea, as the newspapers are dreading, but alive and calling for help. In a race against time, Lizzie must convince the local Coast Guard that the radio transmissions were real and that Earhart's life hangs in the balance. But will anyone believe her? 

Written for audio by David R. Gillham, the acclaimed, New York Times best-selling author of City of Women, and performed by Emily Bauer and Hilary Huber, Alone with the Stars is a breathtaking and illuminating tribute to a woman who risked her life in pursuit of new heights, and the young girl who tried desperately to save her when everything went wrong. Inspired by actual events, Alone with the Stars reveals, in riveting detail, the final moments in the life of a great heroine, whose courage changed the world forever.

©2019 David Gillham (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC.

“Lizzy Friedlander” has a real name!!!

The ACTUAL SOUTH FLORIDA 15 –YEAR OLD GIRL who heard Amelia Earhart’s distress calls on her dad’s shortwave, wrote down what she heard in a school notebook, got her dad to take her to the Coast Guard and had her reports to them dismissed has a name: BETTY KLENCK BROWN.

I can’t speak to whose hard work/research David Gillham has—been inspired by, shall we say—regarding Amelia Earhart’s life and character, but this “Lizzy” is NOT a fictional person. All the information about Betty and the real Notebook is available on the TIGHAR (The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery) website via their Ameliapedia and their Forum for any person who’s interested in the Final Flight online. It has been browsable without fee for more than 30 years.

And if David Gillham (and Audible) were acknowledging UP FRONT that this “fictionalized” audio-play is in large part inspired by Betty Klenck Brown’s life experience, as well as on research information developed and worked on by innumerable volunteer TIGHAR researchers over decades of work? This probably would have been a different review.

Don’t misunderstand me: what has been done in this production here is entirely legal; there’s no question of that.

But in my strongly held opinion, using Betty Klenck Brown’s life/her legacy without acknowledging her--by calling this a “fiction” just because he changed her name-- is deeply, deeply immoral.

A little disappointing for such a mysterious story

It's hard to tell from the cover if this is a children's story or just family oriented, and it turns out to be neither.

I love Amelia Earhart stories, so I picked this as one of my Audible Original freebies for Feb, 2020.

The story alternates points of view between Amelia Earhart on her last flight, and Lizzie, a 15 yr old girl that hears AE's distress call on her father's short wave.

The story is nice, but a little average for such a mysterious situation. The pace gets a little slow midway through when it recounts her relationships with several people in her life. (The author also suggests that her dysentery might actually be a pregnancy instead, like others have opined recently.)

The vocabulary and curse words would not be appropriate for under 15, in my opinion. (There is quite a bit of airplane equipment and aviation terminology, too.)

The narrators both did a nice job. Background sound effects were done nicely and not distracting.

I probably wouldn't recommend it under normal circumstances, but as an Audible freebie it wasn't a bad selection.

Not suitable for children

I was enjoying the story until about 3/4 of the way through, when all of a sudden it was full of profanity. A sware word or two gets the point across, like a slap in the face, but if you keep beating me down with it I'm going to leave. I can't tell you anything from that point on, because I was done with the verbal assault to my ears. This is especially strange as I don't recall any profanity up to that point, and the book seemed to be targeted towards preteens. Call me a prude if you like, but I dislike course language, and a gifted author doesn't need to resort to profanity to change the tenor and tone of a scene anyway. it's just laziness.

Decent short story

The only thing I did not like was the f-word being dropped about five times, unnecessarily.
Otherwise, good story.

Extraordinary women

I was surprised, delighted and in the end moved to tears by this historical fiction story about Amelia Earhart and the young girl who tried to save her. At 2 hours it feels like it could be a movie. I say historical fiction although it is based on true events, when Earhart’s plane famously vanished. The story follows Earhart’s last hours in flight as she calls for help, and the life of the teenage girl who accidentally picks up her final transmissions. It’s a story about courage, loss and memory. Without giving too much away one of the story’s best moments is in the last chapter, when we find out what has become of the main characters.

Earhart is one of those American heroes I have known about my whole life, but this story gives so much incredible insight into who she was as a person and more importantly as a woman. There is a lot here I didn’t know and I have to say that I am so intrigued! Listening to this has made me want to listen to a biography of Amelia Earhart.

This story also uses some very nice sound design. I don’t like when audiobooks have too much going on in them, so this uses sound effects very subtly and nicely. Much appreciated!

this book is very disappointing

I liked the premise of this book. But the language causes me to feel I've wasted my money. While I understand the desire to portray foul language, it can be done in a way that I need not listen to it. I found this book to be most disappointing.

AE voice is annoying

So the storyline is good, I’ve always been very intrigued by Amelia Earhart. The person narrating her voice though has a nasally voice that you can tell she’s trying to talk in a lower octave than she usually does and it’s very very annoying I can’t get through this book.

well done presentation

i loved the story of a girl who did her best - inspired by her teacher and her dad.
If not for the vulgar language i would recommend it to girls and boys of all ages.

Hold On To Your Rudder

I really wanted to like this book because I am drawn to the Amelia Earhart story. Unfortunately, for me, this crashed and burned. Narration is difficult to listen to and the foul language toward the end was over-the-top.

AE and Lizzie

What an inspiring listen! Lizzie Friedlander, a high school student in Tampa, Florida, intercepts distress calls on her father’s radio in the ONE HOUR that she calls her own (between school and preparing supper for herself and her dad). Her dad, a traveling salesman, relies on Bunny (his pet name for Lizzie) for so much since her mom died. Its just the two of them. Amelia Earhart is Lizzie’s heroine, and she’d already heard at school that day that AE’s plane was missing. So now, hearing the SOS, Lizzie is hyper alert and just as her daddy had always told her, she writes everything down. So, when she hears his familiar, Guess who’s home, she’s prepared. And he believes her! As Lizzie and Mr. Friedlander confront the local Coast Guard with the information, I am SO proud of Lizzie and over the moon proud of her father . . . even though the head of the CG is a total fool. If not for this bodacious interaction, the book would be fit for younger listeners. Great story based on what could have been .