Girls who want to be nurses will enjoy this biography of Linda Richards, who in 1873 became America's first graduate nurse. Here is the story of how she used spirit and determination to get the training she needed. Here too is the story of her lifelong fight to rid medicine of prejudice against women.

As a child, Linda tried hard to nurse her mother back to health. After her mother died Linda continued to help others under the watchful eye of old Doc Currier. Linda wanted to be a real nurse, but there were no schools to train her. So she took the only hospital work she could find -- that of ward maid. The hard work and long hours left her tired and ill. Later when Linda learned that a brave group of women doctors were starting a class for nurses, she became their first pupil.

After graduation, Linda started nursing schools in Boston and New York and stubbornly instilled in her students humane practices that raised the standards of nursing. Linda went to England, where she met Florence Nightingale, and later spent five years in Japan helping train its first nurses.

Nurse Richards lived to see the ideas that she taught become accepted medical practice. Her life, filled with tireless work and limitless sympathy, will be an inspiration to young readers.

From the dust jacket