From: Know Your World Extra Date: 12/12/2003 Author: Peters, Jennifer L.
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Characters
Narrators 1 and 2: people who tell the story
Robert: an American tourist
Nick and Ally: Robert's teenage children
Das: a 16-year-old boy
Stranger 1 and Stranger 2
Man and Woman
Donna: Nick and Ally's mother
Scene One
Narrator 1: A family of American tourists drives toward the Tinian Hotel and Casino.
Narrator 2: Tinian is a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean. It is one of a chain of 14 tropical islands. Together, they make up the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The islands are under the protection of the United States.
Robert: And so, kids, on August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay took off from this island. The plane dropped the atomic bomb on Japan ...
Nick: C'mon, Dad, enough already!
Ally: We've been listening to your history lesson for two hours.
Robert: One day history will excite you.
Narrator 1: The kids groan.
Narrator 2: The family arrives at the resort. Later, Nick and Ally sit by the pool. They order some Cokes from a teen waiter. His name is Das.
Das: Are you enjoying our enchanted island?
Nick: Enchanted?
Das: I should say haunted.
Ally: Huh?
Das: Sometimes, just as night begins to fall, we hear the faint sound of a plane flying low. But no one has ever seen it. We call it the ghost plane.
Nick: Sure. I bet you want to sell me some "ghost plane" T-shirts and stuff, right?
Das: No. In fact, some strangers have been asking the locals about an old, lost plane. They've set up a search area in the jungle.
Scene Two
Narrator 1: A few days later, Nick and Ally overhear people talking quietly in the hotel lobby.
Stranger 1: Amelia Earhart was supposed to land on Howland Island when she disappeared. Tinian would have put her thousands of miles off course.
Stranger 2: I know, but the story seems to add up.
Narrator 2: The two men walk into the casino.
Ally: Amelia Earhart--I've heard of her, but I don't know much about her.
Nick: We have our laptop with us. Let's see what we can find.
Narrator 1: The kids do an Internet search.
Ally: Here you go. Amelia Earhart was one of the first women pilots. In 1932 she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
Nick: Man, who cares what happened that long ago? Look--all the photos are black and white. How boring!
Ally: No, listen, it's really cool. She was this huge celebrity who disappeared on July 2, 1937. She and her co-pilot, Fred Noonan, were making the first airplane flight around the world. They had almost finished their mission. Most people think their plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the Pacific Ocean. But no one knows for sure.
Nick: That must be it! They're searching for Amelia Earhart in the jungle. That ghost plane is hers.
Ally: Let's go find Das!
Scene Three
Narrator 2: Later that day, Nick, Ally, and Das decide to do some snooping of their own.
Narrator 1: Das takes them to a remote part of the island. He leads the teens through dense sugar cane and giant ferns. The kids walk for more than a mile.
Narrator 2: The teens come to a roped-off site. A sign warns people to stay out.
Narrator 1: The teens search for a while.
Ally: Look! What's this? It's some kind of old leather satchel. Yuck, it's covered with dirt.
Nick: There's a plane stitched on it.
Das: You think it could be Amelia Earhart's?
Ally: Looks old enough.
Nick: And it looks like a pilot's bag.
Narrator 2: Das looks up at the sky.
Das: It's getting dark. We need to go.
Narrator 1: The teens hear a plane fly over. They look up and see nothing.
Ally: This place is creepy.
Narrator 2: Two ghost-like shadows appear through the mist. The figures are of a man and a woman dressed in tan clothes.
Nick: It's the pilots! Run!
Man: Stop! Stay right where you are!
Narrator 1: The teens turn around. The man and woman approach them. Ally hides the bag behind her.
Woman: You kids shouldn't be here. You're in a restricted area.
Man: You'll have to come with us.
Scene Four
Narrator 2: The strangers take the teens to a small building at the edge of the jungle. It is set up as an office.
Narrator 1: Old maps and posters of Amelia Earhart fill the walls.
Man: Why are you kids snooping?
Nick: We're looking for Amelia Earhart.
Man: Yeah? You, me, and a few million other people would like to find her, too.
Woman: We're doing serious stuff out there. Amelia Earhart is an icon. The U.S. government spent four million dollars to find her when she went missing.
Man: Having you stirring up the jungle makes our search harder.
Das: We're sorry.
Nick: We didn't mean to mess things up.
Narrator 2: Ally pulls out the bag. Ally: We found this in the jungle. Do you think it could be Amelia's?
Narrator 1: The man takes the satchel. He smiles.
Man: This is something I was hoping to find. Let's make a deal, OK? We'll take you home and you'll stay away from our site.
Nick: Deal.
Narrator 2: The teens breathe a sigh of relief.
Scene Five
Narrator 1: The investigators drive the teens to the hotel.
Ally: Do you think you'll find the pilots or the plane?
Man: We hope so, but we're not counting on it. Many people have thought they'd found evidence of Earhart or her plane over the years. They've all been proven wrong.
Woman: We still don't know if her plane crashed. Some people think that she was a spy that the Japanese captured.
Man: Some think she returned to the United States under a new name.
Woman: It's a mystery for the ages.
Narrator 2: The teens arrive back at the hotel. The man hands the satchel to Ally.
Man: Keep it.
Ally: Don't you want it?
Man: Sure. I wanted it--about a week ago when I lost it. I bought a new bag yesterday.
Ally: Thank you.
Narrator 1: Nick and Ally quickly say their goodbyes to Das. They rush back to their room.
Narrator 2: The room is empty. The teens change into their bed clothes. Nick settles into his cot and turns on the TV.
Narrator 1: Robert and Donna return a few minutes later.
Donna: You couch potatoes. We bring you to a tropical island and you just lie around watching TV all day?
Robert: Tell me you've at least watched a History Channel program and learned something.
Ally: Oh, we learned something all right.
Nick: Sit down, Dad. We've got a history lesson for you for a change! Let me tell you about the ghost plane.
Robert: The ghost plane?
Narrator 2: Nick and Ally smile.
Ally: Well, Dad, it all started back in 1937.
Nick: Yeah, back when the whole world was black and white!
Think About It
What kind of clues might searchers look for to solve the mystery of Amelia Earhart?
BEFORE READING
* Introduce Vocabulary: tropical, atomic, faint, casino, satchel, evidence
* Tap Prior Knowledge: Ask: Who was Amelia Earhart? What feat was she trying to accomplish when she died?
* Invite and Check Predictions: Ask: Why is the title of the play "Ghost Plane"? How long ago did Amelia Earhart's plane disappear? Check students' predictions after they have read the play.
NOTES BEHIND THE NEWS
* Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kans. She flew in an airplane for the first time on Dec. 28, 1920. "By the time I had [gotten] two or three hundred feet off the ground," she said, "I knew I had to fly."
* Earhart took her first flying lesson on Jan. 3, 1921. Within six months, she had managed to save enough money to buy her first plane. The secondhand Kinner Airster was a two-seated biplane painted bright yellow. Earhart named the plane Canary and used it to set her first record, flying to an altitude of 14,000 feet.
EXTEND THE LESSON
Amelia Earhart's ill-fated flight began in Oakland, Calif., in late May 1937 and followed a route eastward across the United States, to South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Have students work in groups to research Earhart's route. Have them use a world map or a globe to retrace the flight, making note of the date and location of each stop.
NCTE/IRA Standard 3: Students apply a wide range of reading strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Weekly Reader Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.For permission to reuse this article, contact
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