Elizabeth Blackwell: First Woman Doctor of Modern Times

Rating:
Summary: First woman doctor-a biography for junior high students
Review: An excellently written biography for young people sets the life of Elizabeth Blackwell against its historical backdrop using photographs, engravings, and sidebars with nuggets of information that clarify the era. This first woman doctor's struggle to achieve her life's dream within that period of history so harsh and prejudicial to women and primitive in terms of medical teaching and practice is brought vividly to life by the informative illustration, accessible historical perspective, and visual design of the book. It should be very useful to help young students understand the history of both women and medicine in the 19th century.

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring story of first woman doctor
Review: This is an extraordinarily informative and gripping account of Elizabeth Blackwell's unlikely rise to prominence in the field of medicine in the 19th century. The portrayals of Dr. Blackwell and her contemporaries and friends--Stowe, Nightingale--are drawn with unusual vividness, as are the many and often seemingly insurmountable obstacles that beset Blackwell at every turn. I was amazed at how much ground Glimm covered, and all in a clear, well-organized and brisk-paced narrative. I am certain that girls and boys alike will find this account of Blackwell's heroic--really triumphant--life inspiring and delightful.