Women in History: Nellie Bly

It Can't Be Done, Nellie Bly! A Reporter's Race Around the World

by Nancy Butcher; illus by Jen Singh

144 pages, ages 7-10

Peachtree 2003

I confess, I wanted to read this book because I remember sneaking into the school library to read Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days sometime in fourth grade. Traveling around the world seemed like such an adventure … something I would have done at the drop of a hat.

I also wanted to read this book because I’m a reporter – and Nellie Bly is my hero. Instead of writing about conventional women’s topics (tea parties, charity events) she wrote about social problems of her day: poor work conditions, lack of decent housing, crooked politicians.

But mostly I wanted to read this book because it’s a grand adventure. In 1889 Nellie Bly took off on a round-the-globe trip to see if a person could, indeed, make it in 80 days or less. No one had done it, outside of Verne’s fantasy. She had to convince her newspaper that this would be a worthwhile investment, and promised to send stories along the way – without cell phone or blogs!

She traveled light, packing only a small satchel and wearing a sturdy travel dress for the nearly three-month venture. She journeyed by ship, train and foot, timing her connections down to the minute and almost missing some. Then, unbeknownst to her, another newspaper decided to send its own reporter to try to beat Nellie Bly home.

A reporter, a race against time, and a pet monkey… what’s not to like? And at the end of the book, author Nancy Butcher provides some additional reading and more details about Nellie’s life and the race. Review copy provided by publisher.

Women in History: Esther Morris

I Could Do That! Esther Morris Gets Women the Vote

By Linda Arms White; illustrated by Nancy Carpenter

40 pages, ages 7 - 9

Melanie Kroupa Books (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)  2005

 

 “In 1820, six-year-old Esther McQuigg studied her mother making tea. ‘I could do that,’ she said.

‘Make tea?’ asked Mama. ‘The older girls do that.’

‘But I want to learn,’ said Esther, and she did.”

So begins the story of Esther Hobart Morris, a woman who thought women “could do that” – whether it was supporting their families with jobs to voting for president.  Linda White paints a portrait of a young girl who has gumption and doesn’t let social convention hold her back from her dreams.

Esther was born in Spencer, NY – a town 20 minutes to the west of me. When she was a young woman, she opened a hat shop in Owego – a town 20 minutes to the south of me. She attended abolitionist meetings, married, raised a family and, when her husband died, tried to claim his land. But inheritance laws worked against women back then.

She eventually remarried, saw one son off to the Civil War, attended lectures by Susan B Anthony and retained her belief that one day she would vote. In 1869 she joined her husband and oldest son in South Pass City, Wyoming where she opened another hat shop.

Esther Morris memorial & home, South Pass City, WY

“One day,” writes White, “Esther read a proclamation tacked to a wall: ALL MALE CITIZENS 21 AND OLDER ARE CALLED TO VOTE IN THE FIRST TERRITORIAL ELECTIONS. Esther looked around at the disorderly young men.

‘It’s time I did that,” she said.”

After a politically strategic tea party, lots of lobbying and a testy legislative session, she and the women of Wyoming won the vote. That same year she was elected to public office, and became the first woman justice of the peace in the nation and the world – but that’s a different story.

What I love about this book is the theme of “I can do that” – a sentiment all children can identify with. Check out more nonfiction about amazing women and other cool topics over at Supratentorial today. Review copy from Finger Lakes Library System.

Madeleine's Light

Madeleine’s Light

By Natalie Ziarnik; illustrated by Robert Dunn

32 pages; ages 5-7

Boyds Mills Press, 2012

 

It is the late 1890’s, and Madeleine is waiting, waiting for the artist to arrive at her family’s chateau. Finally, a team of horses pulls up. But when the artist steps out of the carriage, Madeleine sees only a scowling young woman in a long black coat.

This Camille Claudel, the famous sculptor who has come to work at the chateau, far from the distractions of Paris. Madeleine, who wants to be an artist herself, watches the sculptor at work. Camille takes her out to collect clay, and teaches her to look for the light inside the people she would sculpt.

Though fiction, the story is grounded in history: Claudel did stay at the Chateau de l’Islette over a few summers, and may have been inspired by the landlady’s granddaughter, Madeleine. This period seems to have been a turning point in Claudel’s artistic life; she sought to capture more than just the outlines of a person’s face.

Review copy provided by publisher.