STORY FRAMES AND A RACE AROUND THE WORLD

This month, I'm featuring A Race Around the World: The True Story of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland. My Story Frames analysis is slightly modified and shortened here. This nonfiction narrative picture book on a topic relevant to all ages is written by Caroline Starr Rose and illustrated by Alexandra Bye, from the She Made History series. 

With spring break approaching, many students and teachers will be traveling. A Race Around the World is a relevant topic to explore. It follows the most unusual true journey of two female journalists in 1889, who race around the world to beat each other and the record set by the fictional character Phileas Fogg in Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne. For students who aren't traveling, encourage taking a journey through a good book. Discuss how stories let us visit places we may never visit in real life. That way, when you come back together after break, everyone has a story to share.

This story analysis is not meant to replace reading the book, but to enhance the discussion with students. Read more about Story Frames and my story analysis system HERE.

1. Ordinary World: Nellie Bly is a reporter for a local newspaper, the World, while Elizabeth Bisland writes a monthly column for Cosmopolitan magazine. 

2. Call and Response: Nellie Bly plans to travel the world in 75 days and beat the fictional Phileas Fogg record. Elizabeth's editor tells her he wants her to make the same journey around the world, but traveling in the opposite direction.

3. Mentors, Guides, and Gifts: Her boss advises Nellie that too much luggage will slow her down. She has a special dress made that she can wear for the entire journey.

4. Crossing (The Journey Begins): Nellie heads east, leaving New Jersey for England on an ocean steamer. At Grand Central Station, Elizabeth catches a westbound train, travels across the U.S., and then boards a ship heading to Japan.

5. New World: Both women visit many new and unusual places.

6. Problems, Prizes, and Plans: The Prize for both women is to win the race. Many obstacles and Problems arise to slow them down.

7. Midpoint Attempt: Nellie goes to meet the author, Jules Verne, then rushes to Italy, where she almost misses her next ship.

8. Downtime Response: Nellie arrives in Ceylon and relaxes on the beach. Elizabeth arrives in Japan and has such a good time that she plans to return.

9. Chase and Escape: Their two ships cross paths on the South China Sea as they continue their race.

10. Death and Transformation (All Hope is Lost): In France, Elizabeth misses her boat back to America. In San Francisco, Nellie's train is cancelled because of snow. Things look hopeless, and both women must make a new plan.

11. Climax: The Final Test: Nellie takes a train south through Arizona, where people cheer her on at every station. Meanwhile, after missing two more ships, Elizabeth must take a train to catch the last ship to America.

12. Final Reward: Nellie wins the race, completing the trip in 72 days. Although Elizabeth loses the race, she continues to travel for the rest of her life.

The complete story analysis for this book, along with analyses of 21 additional picture books and 10 chapter books and novels, is available on the download hub at the publisher's websit for purchasers of Story Frames.

A fun connection to this story is my free Story Ad Lib entitled Travel Trouble. The PDF may be downloaded as a link in my 2026 newsletter. Sign up HERE.

In 2021, I combined my love of writing with my experiences working with struggling readers and writers to create Story Frames: Enhancing Student Learning Through the Power of Storytelling. It is a twelve-step story analysis I created that is inspired by The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler and various other books on story plotting for professional writers. Read more about it HERE.