This is a book of true stories of nine courageous women who strove to heal the sick in times of need; when they were perhaps not taken as seriously as they would be now. These stories are primarily about women who lived from the nineteenth century to the mid twentieth century. They were nurses whose lives and accomplishments were not known to me until I read this book.

From Mary Ann Bickerdyke (1817-1901) - a hospital administrator for the Union during the Civil War, she earned the nickname 'Mother' Bickerdyke and worked tirelessly to improve conditions for veterans; to Lora Wood Hughes (1873-1960) - a contract nurse during the Spanish-American War, she tended to the sick during an epidemic of typhoid and wrote her autobiography, No Time For Tears in World War II.

In my opinion, this was an excellently written children's book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. As I've said before, I had no knowledge of these courageous women's lives before I read this book, and I appreciated that these true life stories were not as well known - at least to me - as say, Florence Nightingale or Clara Barton would be. I give this book an A+! and Mareena has reacquired it to read for herself at some point. ( )