This book details Elizabeth Cochran's ( "Nellie Bly" ) life and the hardships she faced being a women in the 1880's. She was raised to be a strong woman with a powerful voice of her own, which was quite unheard of in early American culture. She forced her way into male-dominated professions and then proved she was a hard-hitting journalist through her many strongly worded articles. She infiltrated a woman's asylum to get the scoop on the living conditions and many illegal practices committed there as well as going to Mexico (completely unheard of at the time) and wrote articles that angered the Mexican government and forced her to flee before she could be arrested. But what she is most known for is her daring trip around the world, without a chaperone, in 80 days or less. Nobody thought she could do it but she wanted to prove them wrong. ( )

A brief summary:
The book begins by introducing Elizabeth Cochran, more commonly known by her pen name, Nellie Bly and the impact she made on the world view of women in the late 1800s. The book continues by describing Bly's childhood, one full of grief and transition as her father passed away and her mother remarried a man who turned out to be abusive and unable to support her family. Bly and her family had to move to Pittsburgh where she was greeted by blackened, smoky skies and years of unemployment. It was in Pittsburgh where Bly took her first step into the world of journalism, a world thought to be only for a man, and changed her life and the lives of women forever. From there, the book continues to explain Bly's accomplishments as a journalist, including her time as a world famous stunt journalist and eventually her decision to travel around the world in less than 80 days. The book gives an overview of Bly's trip, mentioning the difficulties that Bly had not only faced but overcame in order to be the first woman to travel around the world in record timing. The book follows Bly's life after her big success and details all of her efforts in advocating not only for women's rights, but for social welfare in general.

My personal reaction:
This book tells the inspiring story of the daring Nellie Bly who was able to accomplish great feats, like traveling across the word in less that 73 days, all while changing the way society viewed women. This story is not only inspiring to women and young girls, but to anyone who has ever been told they cannot do something because they are different, whether its gender, race, etc. The watercolor and pen illustrations give the book an old time feel that really complements the story of Nellie Bly.

A couple of uses:
- Spend a month focusing on different women who were able to create social change throughout history. Each week, choose a woman to focus on and read aloud this book as a class to learn more about Nellie Bly. Another week could be spent on learning about Rosa Parks and the class could read Back of the Bus together in order to open up the week's unit.
- After reading the book as a class, map out the route that Nellie Bly took in order to travel around the world. Have fun and research other people who have tackled the daunting task of traveling around the entire world!

Genre:
This book is considered a biography because it includes factual information on the life of Nellie Bly but it is written by Bonnie Christensen, a woman other than Nellie Bly herself. I would consider this to be a good biography because it is able to provide an overview of Nellie Bly's life from childhood up until her death while still engaging the reader with its choice of interesting details. For example, the book mentions specific moments in Nellie Bly's life that may spark interest in the reader and make him/her want to research it even more. One moment could be when the book says that Nellie Bly was able to successfully run her husband's company when he passed and make the company a "model of social welfare." By briefly introducing this interesting detail on Nellie Bly's life, the book causes the reader to wonder what exactly Nellie Bly did and to be more likely to research her life further. The realistic and colorful illustrations also give snapshots into Nellie Bly's life and are able to catch the period in which she lived.

Media:
watercolor and pen ( )

Another one O didn't want to read originally because it was black and white. However, we both enjoyed the story about a strong female in a male dominated world. ( )

The thrilling story of Nellie Bly who defied all standards for women in her time. She overlooked the traditional expectations and rules and went on to do things that no woman had ever done before, and even man in some cases. She was a reporter in a time when female reporters were uncommon and lived an extraordinary life that would be fascinating to readers of all ages.
I really enjoyed this book. ( )

I didn't know about Nellie Bly's around the world quest. This book really enlightened me about that. It was a longer than the average picture book biography. I don't think I could use it with a younger audience simply because of wavering attention spans, but I enjoyed learning from it. I think with an upper elementary to early middle school audience, this would work out really well. The illustrations are just right for the book, conveying not only the events of the story, but the general tone of the era. Overall, I enjoyed the book. I'd add it to my children's biography collection happily. ( )