Ten Days a Madwoman: The Daring Life and Turbulent Times of the Original "Girl" Reporter, Nellie Bly

by Deborah Noyes

Overview

Work for a New York newspaper
Fall in love
Marry a millionaire
Change the world
 
Young Nellie Bly had ambitious goals, especially for a woman at the end of the nineteenth century, when the few female journalists were relegated to writing columns about cleaning or fashion. But fresh off a train from Pittsburgh, Nellie knew she was destined for more and pulled a major journalistic stunt that skyrocketed her to fame: feigning insanity, being committed to the notorious asylum on Blackwell's Island, and writing a shocking exposé of the clinic’s horrific treatment of its patients.
 
Nellie Bly became a household name as the world followed her enthralling career in “stunt” journalism that raised awareness of political corruption, poverty, and abuses of human rights. Leading an uncommonly full life, Nellie circled the globe in a record seventy-two days and brought home a pet monkey before marrying an aged millionaire and running his company after his death.
 
With its sensational (and true!) plot, Ten Days a Madwoman dares its readers to live as boldly as its remarkable heroine.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803740174
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	02/23/2016
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	1210L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 12 Years

About the Author

Deborah Noyes is the author of nonfiction and fiction for young readers and adults, including Encyclopedia of the End: Mysterious Death in Fact, Fancy, Folklore, and More, One Kingdom: Our Lives with Animals, and The Ghosts of Kerfol. She has also compiled and edited the short story anthologies Gothic!, The Restless Dead, and Sideshow. She would like to slide down banisters for a living, but writing is the next best thing.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1: The Gods of Gotham
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Ten Days a Madwoman"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Deborah Noyes.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Young Readers Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

1 The Gods of Gotham 1

2 More Than Anyone Would Believe 9

3 Strange Ambition 17

4 You Won't Get Out in a Hurry 27

5 Into the Madhouse 39

6 She Who Enters Hero 51

7 After an Item 61

8 Stunts and More Stunts 67

9 Around the World 73

10 Sightseeing (and Other Inconveniences) 81

11 Father Time Outdone 89

12 Industries of Magnitude 101

13 Good Fights Well Fought 115

Author's Note 120

Source Note 123

Bibliography 129

Acknowledgments 131

Picture Credits 132

Index 133

Editorial Reviews

11/23/2015
Readers meet Elizabeth Jane Cochran (aka Nellie Bly) on the eve of her illustrious journalism career in the opening pages of Noyes’s (Plague in the Mirror) biography. Over 13 chapters, this story of the innovative, bootstrapping Bly reveals her many juxtaposed traits (“as frivolous as she was socially earnest, as funny and self-deprecating as she was proud and haughty” writes Noyes in a closing note). The winding narrative initially focuses on Bly’s undercover work, getting committed to a New York City asylum and reporting on its appalling conditions, then recounts her other accomplishments, including circumnavigating the globe in fewer than 80 days and other stunt-style assignments, many of which championed the socially downtrodden. Numerous sidebars and interspersed spreads explore Bly’s childhood and other topics, but while these frequent diversions provide useful context, they are also distracting, forcing shifts in readers’ attention every few pages. Still, Noyes’s thoroughly researched account, with archival photos and myriad quotes from Bly’s own work, offers a well-rounded look at a self-possessed women who was nothing if not resilient. Ages 10–up. Agent: Jill Grinberg, Jill Grinberg Literary Management. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Ten Days a Madwoman:

"Noyes' vivid storytelling throws us headfirst into Nellie Bly's inspiring work and incredibly daring adventures." —Steve Sheinkin, National Book Award Finalist and Newbery Honor–winning author of Bomb and The Port Chicago 50

“Ten Days a Madwoman thrilled and terrified me at the same time. I’d heard of Nellie Bly as a crusading reporter, but had no idea how daring, impetuous, and smart she was. I’ve got a new hero.” —Elizabeth Partridge, National Book Award Finalist and Printz Honor–winning author of John Lennon and This Land Was Made for You and Me

“Noyes delivers a riveting narrative of one of our cleverest and most resourceful heroines, zeroing in on Nellie Bly’s first exposé, and putting us right in the madhouse alongside sane women being driven crazy.” —Tanya Lee Stone, Sibert Medalist and NAACP Image Award–winning author of Almost Astronauts and Courage Has No Color 

“In Ten Days a Madwoman, Deborah Noyes gives us a compelling portrait of Nellie Bly, the audacious young reporter who risked her own safety to expose social injustice. Vividly written and gorgeously illustrated, the book brings fully to life a heroine of her time — and ours.” —Matthew Goodman, bestselling author of Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World

Praise for Deborah Noyes’s One Kingdom:
 
- An American Library Association (ALA) Best Book for Young Adults
- An ASPCA/Henry Bergh Award Winner
- A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
 
“An astonishingly well-written book: profound and hopeful. In a world in which our lives overlap with animals' more and more infrequently, Deb Noyes gives us humans plenty to think about.” —Jeff Corwin, wildlife biologist and Emmy Award-winning television producer and host for Animal Planet and Discovery Communications
 
“Elegant, lyrically written, and thought-provoking, One Kingdom will challenge and illuminate both the bond and the distance we feel between ourselves and the Others on this Earth. Deb Noyes’ respect and affection for her subject and her readers shines on every page, and her insightful observations and penetrating questions resonate like the best poetry.” —Sy Montgomery, author of Search for the Golden Moon Bear, The Good Good Pig, and the 2005 Sibert Honor Winner The Tarantula Scientist
 
“This approach asks for the kind of critical thinking seldom demanded by young adult nonfiction, and Noyes offers questions but not answers or judgments. She digresses, adds sidebars and full-page asides, and inserts herself into the narrative as she becomes a partner in a free-wheeling inquiry with the reader. Handsome black-and-white photos of various animals allow for moments of contemplation.” —The Horn Book
 
“A good nonfiction pleasure read for older teens.” —VOYA
 
“Readers will find the provocative questions Noyes raises compelling and challenging, and the lyrical, urgent prose, along with beautiful black-and-white photos of the animals up close, will draw serious readers and browsers alike—a fascinating, unusual volume.” —Booklist
 
“A thoughtful and conceptual book about natural history. . . Its probing, contemplative approach has a maturity that will appeal to serious young readers, who will find this a thought-provoking introduction to a rich field of cultural consideration. Elegant formatting draws on period-art overlays, boxed features, and imagistic black-and-white photographs for an artistic and sophisticated look.” —BCCB (recommended)
 
“A browser's delight.” —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

★ 12/01/2015
Gr 6 Up—Daring? Turbulent? Madwoman? When a book's title includes those words, readers are bound to be inspired to open it. When the book is as well done as this one is, readers will stay through the last page. About half of the narrative is devoted to the 10 days that journalist Nellie Bly spent undercover in an asylum for mentally ill women (and women who were put there unjustly by their families). Given the high drama of these real-life events, the author's matter-of-fact writing style keeps the narrative from veering toward sensationalism. Passages from Bly's newspaper article about the experience are threaded into the narrative, thereby keeping her vibrant viewpoint as the dramatic center. The rest of the volume covers Bly's other exploits, personal and professional: her venture around the world in a record-breaking 72 days, her interview with imprisoned anarchist Emma Goldman, and her own marriage at 31 to septuagenarian millionaire Robert Seaman. The illustrations are a mix of straightforward archival photos and surreal retouched photos à la Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Quirk, 2011). Because the former are captioned with historical facts and the latter are not captioned at all, it is easy to tell the difference between the actual images and the fanciful. Noyes makes history accessible and irresistible in this thrilling account of women's lives, flagrant abuse, scandal, courage, and tenacity. The source notes are extensive, and the research is impeccable. VERDICT This excellent work is a natural fit for units on history, biography, and social studies.—Jennifer Prince, Buncombe County Public Libraries, NC

School Library Journal

2015-11-03
As the title implies, this biography focuses largely on reporter Nellie Bly's 10 grim days in a New York City insane asylum for women in 1887, which influenced public opinion and gained her instant celebrity. Bly's famous 1889 trip around the world, inspired by the Jules Verne novel and followed closely by thousands of newspaper readers, is covered in less detail but with plenty of pizzazz. The brisk narrative draws from Bly's own writings and from biographies, skillfully incorporating quotations, dialogue, and well-chosen facts. The overall tone is admiring, but the balanced text also acknowledges criticism of her kind of "stunt" reporting and touches briefly on problems in her personal life. While Bly's work life is presented chronologically, her earlier years are spread out in a disjointed manner in sidebars throughout the book. These and other double-page sidebars are embedded in the middles of chapters, often disrupting the smooth flow of the story. Plentiful black-and-white photographs, cartoons, newspaper pages, and artifacts expand the sense of time and place. Noyes sets Bly's life and career in context, especially with regard to limitations on women and condescending attitudes toward their abilities. A lively biography that reflects the spirit of the intrepid reporter. (author's note, source notes, bibliography, index) (Biography. 11-14)

Kirkus Reviews