May 2008 Book Club Selection
by David A. Adler
Print/braille edition, $6.95
Ages 6-10
This lovely biographical sketch traces the life of the Victorian-era woman who revolutionized the nursing profession.
Florence, named for the city of her birth, was born into a wealthy and privileged British family. Despite her parents’ hopes, young Florence turned her attention to caring for London’s poor and sick, and eventually went abroad to study nursing and advocate for clean hospitals. But during her time spent nursing soldiers in the Crimean War she was able to put her revolutionary ideas to work: she and the other nurses cleaned the hospital, prepared healthy food, and spent hours each day making sure the patients were comfortable. Back home in England, she became a popular hero as songs and plays were written about her, and babies were named in her honor. After the war, Florence spent the remainder of her life writing influential books on nursing and proper hospital administration, starting a nursing school, and advising foreign governments on health conditions in hospitals.
David Adler, one of our favorite authors of biographies for children, here vividly presents the life of an unconventional, strong-minded woman who transformed her profession and set the standards for modern nursing.
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