Sue Barton, from Rural Nurse to Superintendent of Nurses

Genre: vintage girls' fiction
On my TBR list? Yes

Books 4 and 5 of a 7-book series

These two volumes document the continuing nursing adventures of Sue Barton. In Sue Barton, Rural Nurse, we follow Sue back to her home state as she leaves the Henry Street nursing program to work alongside her fiance Dr. Barry. The events in this book lead to her becoming head of a nursing program in Sue Barton, Superintendent of Nurses.

The writing style of this series is different that what I am accustomed to. With other books, I feel like I am following the main character around and looking over her shoulder, waiting for the next event to occur. Boylston's writing style is more like an account of a certain period in time. As the reader, I felt farther removed from the events. It was like sitting down to coffee with someone and having them try to give you their life story in a nutshell as opposed to watching the events unfold for yourself in a movie. Other authors make you wonder right up until the end whether there will be a happy ending. In this series, I never doubted the happy ending, but I was still intrigued enough to wonder how it was going to come about.

I think this series might be a fun read for a nurse. There is a lot of information in each book about nursing procedures, and a modern nurse might get a kick out of reading about how things once were done.