E-book
The daring Nellie Bly America's star reporter
Record details
- ISBN: 9780307793430 (electronic bk.)
- ISBN: 0307793435 (electronic bk.)
-
Physical Description:
electronic resource
remote
1 online resource : col. ill. - Edition: 1st ed.
- Publisher: New York : Knopf, 2003.
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references. |
| Source of Description Note: | Description based on print version record. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Bly, Nellie -- 1864-1922 -- Juvenile literature Journalists -- United States -- Biography -- Juvenile literature Bly, Nellie -- 1864-1922 Journalists Women -- Biography |
| Genre: | Electronic books. |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2003 September #1
Gr. 3-5, younger for reading aloud. This picture book for older readers tells Nellie Bly's fabulous story: a riches-to-rags childhood; a job at the Pittsburgh Dispatch when no woman had such a thing; a move to New York, where she went undercover in an insane asylum and then wrote the story for the New York World. She bested the fictional hero Jules Verne by going around the world--alone-- in 72 days, and she was a war correspondent during World War I. In an easy-to-read style, Christensen lets Bly's story tell itself, and her art, as it was in Woody Guthrie: Poet of the People (2001), is powerful and rich in color. She uses strong black line to outline figures, add detail, and emphasize vivid facial expression in oversize pictures that are full of movement and action. Children will thrill to the true-life story. ((Reviewed September 1, 2003)) Copyright 2003 Booklist Reviews - Horn Book Guide Reviews : Horn Book Guide Reviews 2004 Spring
Christensen touches on Bly's early life (she was born at the end of the Civil War) and the beginnings of her career, but it's her around-the-world journey that forms the literary and visual climax of the story. A final montage centering the adult Bly among the women and children who served as subjects of her exposes and later crusades reminds readers of her powerful voice and of those ""who had no friend but Nellie Bly."" Chronology, videography. Bib. Copyright 2004 Horn Book Guide Reviews. - Horn Book Magazine Reviews : Horn Book Magazine Reviews 2003 #5
A young woman, satchel in hand, waves gaily from the jacket of this middle-grade biography, inviting potential readers to join her on a great journey, both literally around the world and metaphorically through her life. It's a trip worth taking. Born at the end of the Civil War when women were considered weaker, more needy, and less clever than men, Bly defied all three cliches. Through luck and pluck she found work as a female reporter and soon became a household name, reporting on the social conditions of women and children, going undercover as a patient in the Women's Lunatic Asylum, and staging an eighty-day trip around the world. While Christensen touches on Bly's early life and the beginnings of her career, it is the around-the-world journey that forms the literary and visual climax of the story. Bly's motto, "Energy rightly applied and directed will accomplish anything," marks her race against the clock and the rapid pacing of her adventure. Two double-page maps, decorated with faux coins, tickets, and stamps suggestive of the times, highlight important stops and trace her route, which is feverishly related in the text. Other illustrations, dense, dark, scratchy pen-and-inks, suggest Victorian melodrama--although as played out by a woman of action rather than a damsel in distress. A final montage centering the adult Bly among the women and children who served as subjects of her exposes and later crusades reminds readers of her powerful voice and of those "who had no friend but Nellie Bly." Appended with a chronology, a bibliography, and a videography. Copyright 2003 Horn Book Magazine Reviews - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2003 September #2
Christensen unabashedly positions Nellie Bly in the pantheon of feminist heroes. She "grew up competing with two older brothers," "learned the art of standing out from the crowd" from her mother, and in the course of a spectacular journalistic career highlighted by a less-than-80-day solo jaunt around the world, exposés of dreadful conditions in a New York asylum, and a stint as correspondent in WWI, she "changed how the world viewed women and paved the way for the young women who followed." Despite the hyperbole, this account of that career's high spots makes riveting reading, and a perfect lead-in to the more detailed accounts offered in the concluding bibliography. The author illustrates Bly's exploits with vigorously drawn scenes that resemble period newspaper engravings. Nary a dull moment in this rousing profile. (chronology, bibliography, videography) (Picture book/biography. 8-10) Copyright Kirkus 2003 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - Library Media Connection : Library Media Connection Reviews 2004 March
This handsomely designed volume will inspire young readers to read further about the exploits of a female pioneer in the world of journalism. Watching her mother suffer through two difficult marriages convinced Nellie Cochran to pursue a career over marriage, and her determination to be a journalist on her own terms is amply illustrated. She wanted to write serious pieces about the plight of working girls and women, about life and culture in Mexico, and about conditions in an insane asylum (to which she got herself committed). Nearly half the book is devoted to Bly's whirlwind attempt to tour the world in fewer than 80 days, a pursuit in which she was successful despite setbacks and a surprise competitor. It is clear that there is a wealth of lively anecdotes about Bly, and the frustration of this book is that the reader is left wishing for more detail and less summarization in places. It is a tall order to confine a larger than life personality to the few pages of a picture book, an Christensen has created an appealing introduction that is enhanced by her bold pen-and-ink illustrations in suitably antique colors. Curious readers will want to turn to other sources to answer the questions that this book raises. Chronology. Bibliography. Recommended. Jan Aldrich Solow, Library Media Specialist, Lt. Eleazar Davis Elementary School, Bedford, Massachusetts © 2004 Linworth Publishing, Inc. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2003 November #2
Christensen (Woody Guthrie) crafts an intriguing introduction to a larger-than-life figure in this attractive picture book biography. Born in 1864, Elizabeth Cochran (better known by her pen name, Nellie Bly) faced dim career prospects. Bly fell into journalism almost by accident at age 20, when her spirited letter to a local newspaper caught the editor's eye. In lucid prose, Christensen traces Bly's career as an investigative journalist, groundbreaking woman war correspondent (at 50, during WWI) and "stunt reporter" who once got herself committed to a women's insane asylum in order to expose its abysmal conditions. However, younger readers may lack the historical context to appreciate the nature of Bly's crusades. The author reserves the core of the book for Bly's most famous stunt: her successful attempt, in 1889, to break the fictional travel record of Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days (Bly did it in 72 days). Using pen and ink washed with muted color, Christensen creates an appropriately Victorian mood, and her busy cross-hatching echoes the style employed by newspaper artists of the day. She intersperses full-spread vistas with smaller framed scenes, while Bly's plucky world tour unfolds through a series of maps overlaid with drawn tickets, postcards, coins and the like. Although Bly the individual remains elusive here, readers will come away with an appreciation of her many feats. Ages 6-12. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. - School Library Journal Reviews : SLJ Reviews 2003 October
Gr 2-5-Born in 1864, Bly (christened Elizabeth Jane Cochran) lived at a time when opportunities for women were extremely limited. Not only did she overcome overwhelming obstacles to become one of the first "serious" female newspaper reporters, but she also became one of the most well known. Her exposés on the discriminatory work practices toward women at several factories and the deplorable condition of a city-run mental institution made her famous, but her historic 72-day journey around the world made her a folk hero. Large, colorful, pen-and-ink illustrations cover almost every page, and a four-page world map helps readers follow the journalist's round-the-world jaunt. Appropriately enough, this terrific biography reads like an adventure story. Perfect for read-alouds, the book gives just enough information to tell a good tale, while providing inspiration for the curious to seek out more material about this fascinating woman.-Sue Morgan, Tom Kitayama Elementary School, Union City, CA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
