Product Description

In Florence Nightingale’s day, if a person was sick – and lucky – he or she was nursed at home with caring family members tending the bedside. Hospitals were horrible places from which few emerged alive. The nurses were often drunks and prostitutes. Doctors had rudimentary skills.

Thus the privileged Nightingale family was appalled when Florence, who had done her share of household nursing, announced that she wanted to train to work in a hospital. After all, her role was cut out for her: she was to be a decorative, witty lady. A career, much less nursing, was out of the question.

It took many years, but Florence found her calling in Crimea. More English soldiers died of sickness there than died in battle. If they were wounded they were almost sure to suffer in misery, lying on pallets caked with old blood, hungry and thirsty, without anyone to offer them so much as a sip of water. Florence caused a revolution in her insistence for cleanliness, wholesome food, and kind treatment of men, who were considered to be nothing more than cannon fodder.

Florence’s campaign resulted in reforms to health care for millions of people. Although she was in frail health for much of her life, her sense of outrage and her extraordinary stamina in the face of prejudice and almost criminal ignorance make her story one of the most inspiring in history.

Dozens of photographs, posters, and cartoons bring the past to life in this memorable biography.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #381222 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-08
• Released on: 2005-03-08
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 8.98" h x .46" w x 7.48" l, .61 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 152 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 5-9-This highly readable and well-researched biography does an excellent job of integrating the social and medical conditions of Nightingale's time. Born into a wealthy English family, Nightingale was expected to pursue trivial tasks and make a "good marriage." However, she decided to study nursing and to make a contribution to society instead. Years later as superintendent of nurses for the British hospitals in Turkey during the Crimean War, she found herself battling horrendous sanitary conditions and bureaucratic blockades. Gorrell fleshes out her subject's stubborn persistence, organizational genius, and exacting intelligence with quotations from family letters, official correspondence, and private letters from Queen Victoria. Enlivening the narrative are black-and-white reproductions of drawings (some done by Nightingale's family and friends) and period photographs. Source notes, a selected bibliography, picture credits, and a Web address for the Nightingale Museum in London are appended. Gorrell succeeds in separating myth from reality, smoothly crafting a picture of a gifted individual who was also wholly human.
Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. Born in 1820, Florence Nightingale was still in her teens when she felt called to God's service, but her wealthy family opposed her intentions to do something useful in the world. Though many people are familiar with Nightingale's name and her image as "the lady with the lamp," this compelling biography makes clear that she did not rise to importance by goodness and mercy. She relentlessly drove herself and those around her for whatever cause she determined was right. Gorrell clearly portrays Nightingale as a multifaceted individual, with many admirable qualities and some negative traits that sometimes made getting along with her as difficult for her family and friends as for her foes in the military and the government. Well-captioned, black-and-white reproductions of photographs, paintings, drawings, and engravings offer readers glimpses of Nightingale's world. A bibliography and source notes are appended. Lively and highly readable. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
“This highly readable and well-researched biography does an excellent job of integrating the social and medical conditions of Nightingale’s time…Gorrell succeeds in separating myth from reality, smoothly crafting a picture of a gifted individual who was also wholly human.”
–School Library Journal

“This fascinating book is filled with little-known facts, photographs and drawings of Nightingale’s personal life, and descriptions of her era’s social mores and medical profession, all of which make her achievements more astounding.”
–Voya

“Lively and highly readable.”
–Booklist

“Accessible, inspiring, and packed with unusual facts, this book will find its way into the heart and soul of many readers, both young and old.”
–Quill & Quire

“Heart and Soul is one of those treasures that should not be allowed to gather dust on a library shelf. Well-written, informative and interesting, it will appeal to anyone thinking about a career in nursing as well as rouse the curiosity of future history majors.”
–Children’s Book Review Service

“…a rich social history of Victorian England and a distinctly feminist picture of the life of an extraordinary woman…”
–Houston Chronicle

“A compelling biography of a woman who, against innumerable odds, established nursing as an honorable and dignified profession.”
–Sunday Times

“A perfect library reference book, and a great read for anyone interested in nursing or Victorian history.”
–Bookselling This Week - Kids’ Pick of the List

Listed by the Globe and Mail as one of the best kids’ books of 2000


From the Hardcover edition.